A New Era
by cooldamien
Summary: When the Borg Queen is destroyed in Endgame, a new Queen is chosen to bring the Borg back from the brink of oblivion. New challanges await, and the Borg will be changed forever. This story is from the POV of the new Borg Queen.
1. Chapter 1

Star Trek - Borg

A New Era

Chapter 1

The Borg are a race of cyborgs that act as one, having one mind and one will. There is no single individual that exists within the Borg Collective, except one. The Borg Queen is the beginning, the end, the one who is many, the one to bring order to chaos, the one who sets the objectives of the Borg.

"In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy ... driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption ... beyond reason."  
— Captain Jean Luc Picard, U.S.S. Enterprise-D 

In a remote region of the Delta Quadrant lay a nebula unlike many other nebulas; one difference being that it orbited around a star and had a higher than normal gravitational field for a nebula of it size. There were no signs that a star was developing inside it. Normal sensors could not penetrate its depths. Over time many ships had tried to explore the inside of the nebula. Every one of them had met a swift end and become part of the Collective. What really set this nebula apart from any other nebulas was that in the center was secluded a small planet. If one were to search below ground of the planet they would find a single large hollowed out chamber. Inside the chamber lay the stronghold of the Borg. The stronghold was a place of last resort that was heavily shielded and protected by an ancient orbital platform which generated the highly dangerous nebula that kept the galaxy at arms reach. The only way to get through the Nebula was sending the proper codes to the orbital platform.

Inside the large underground chamber was guarded the most vital computer mainframe that the Borg possessed. Unlike any other mainframe its connection to the collective was limited to only monitoring the condition of the current Borg Queen. In the case of termination of the Queen, Program 001 Alpha would initiate. Program 001 Alpha was known by Starfleet Command as the Royal Protocol.

On Stardate 55709.04819888392 mainframe 000001 received a message through what was left of the Borg's hidden signal platforms throughout the galaxy. The message's origin was from Spatial Grid 325(Earth)

Drone One of One has been terminated at Stardate 55709.04819888383.

Processing ….

Processing ……

Transmitting…

New Directive: The unit known as Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One is to be located. Once the unit is found, program 001 Beta is to be initiated.

Receiving…

Stardate 55709.04819888402 –

Objective located program 001 Beta has been initiated…

Standing By…

Standing By….

Standing By…….

Receiving…….

Stardate 55709.04819888634-

Unit Seven of Nine has been terminated before Program 001 beta was completed at Stardate 55709.04819888632

Processing ….

Processing ………..

New Directive: The unit known as Naomi Wildman is to be brought out of cryostasis and placed into maturation chamber 04. Program 001 BetaV2 is to be initiated.

Inside the same chamber three Borg drones left their alcoves and walked to the back of the large chamber to cryostasis chamber 02. One drone walked over to a computer panel and began to enter commands into the terminal while the other two drones stood on opposite sides of the cryostasis entrance door. A few seconds later the cryostasis door opened up. The two drones grabbed the smaller teenage girl as she emerged and took her to maturation chamber 04. Once the teenager was properly secured in the chamber the third drone went over to another consol and initiated program 001 BetaV2. The three drones then returned to their alcoves and resumed their regeneration cycles.

Inside maturation chamber 04 program 001 BetaV2 had begun and had loaded an artificial intelligence based off the Borg Queen who had been killed by the future Admiral Janeway. Inside the chamber the AI created a link to the mind of Naomi Wildman and started downloading and processing her memories. This had been done once before, when Naomi Wildman had first been captured by the Borg. The knowledge of Naomi Wildman had greatly improved the collective, taking the Borg one step closer to perfection. After this first scan, program 001 had terminated the assimilation process and redirected the collective to take her to the hidden stronghold to be frozen until she was needed.

The scan currently taking place had a much different purpose. The AI was to learn everything about Naomi's life so it could adapt her mind to become the next Queen. No matter what happened, Naomi Wildman would comply and become the next Borg Queen. The AI also used her memories in the assimilation process. Naomi Wildman did not know it but she had decided how her body would be reconstructed.

As her mind and body were being rebuilt, Naomi Wildman was reliving her entire life in the span of a few seconds. She was currently witnessing what would change her whole life and had led her to her current situation.

Flashback

I was nine and was on an away mission with her mother. Captain Janeway wanted the two to have some mother daughter time together. We had been on the planet for about two hours when we were arrested. Me and my mother where told we had broken article 4 section 3 of the local law. I never found out what that meant. We were taken to a large asteroid where slaves mined for a mineral commonly used to power everything from a small city to a starship's warp drive.

I was currently bound to a metal chair with a strange helmet device that had been placed on my head. The room was dark and as time passed by I was getting a splitting headache. After some time, I wasn't sure exactly how much, the lights came on and a small humanoid alien walked into the room with a smile on his face. He had large eye ridges and a v-shaped ridge starting above his nose. "You my little girl, are going to make me a very rich man," he smiled devilishly. At the same time he walked over to me and took the helmet devise off my head.

"Wh-who are you and what do you want with me?" I asked in a trembling voice

"My name is Gresord, but you will address me as Master. As for what I want? That is simple. I want the knowledge that is stored in your mind," the alien answered. He must have seen the look of confusion that had crossed my face and continued, saying "You see, when we bring in a new slave we do a few tests. For example a medical test is preformed to make sure you do not carry any illnesses or are unable to work. After the medical test we use this devise." He held up the helmet. "I call it a mind probe; it allows us to assign each slave a task best suited for him or her and so helps us improve productivity. We can see and view bits and pieces of your life and you, my little slave, have been taught personally by a former Borg drone. You know Borg algorithms that are light-years ahead of what we are currently using. You know more about Nano Probes then our top researches could ever dream of. You even have an understanding of Borg weapons and shields. Your little school lessons are going to make me the richest man in the Praymor Order. You will be recreating everything you know."

I started to shake my head no. I'd been taught the Prime Directive since I was very young, you're never give away technology to alien races. The repercussions could be dire, and giving away Borg technology was even worse; the damage that could be caused was unthinkable. Finally I said, "I will never tell you anything!"

Gresord's smile quickly left his face. "You will cooperate with me, or things will become very difficult for you. If you work with me, you will live the best life any slave could ever hope to get." I shook my head again. Gresord sighed. "Very well then; normally I would use your slave implant to inflict massive amount of pain until you cooperated, but that has been known to cause damage to a slave's mind. I cannot risk that happening to you, but your mother on the other hand…."

Gresord walked over to a small terminal and pressed a few buttons. A few minutes later the door to the room opened up and two black armored guards brought a woman bound by chains and with several large bruises covering her face and arms. "MOM!" I yelled, struggling against the restraints which bound me to the chair.

My mother tried to rush up to my side, but the two guards held her back. "Naomi we will get threw this. I promise!" She cried before one of the guards silenced her with a savage backhand which split both her lips and sent her sprawling.

Gresord looked down at the shaking woman at his feet as the guard lifted her back to her knees. "You will tell your daughter to cooperate and share all her knowledge of Borg technology with me, or things will get very difficult for you."

My mother's face went white. "Honey, I'm sorry, but whatever you do you cannot share a single thing about the Bor…"

Gresord backhanded my mother and she fell to the floor again. Then he asked me in a dangerous voice, "Will you cooperate with me?"

As I am Human/Ktarian hybrid, I was more mature then a normal human child. I had been taught Starfleet values from birth. No matter what, I could not share Borg technology with this man. It's what my mother wanted, and I knew that inside my heart, but it still hurt. I started to cry and I said, "I can't."

The next three days were pure hell for me. For three days I had to sit locked into the chair and watch my mother screaming in pain from the agonies of the active slave implant or by being whipped and forcibly raped over and over again. I saw Gresord smile as my mother screamed and pleaded for the pain to stop. He would even laugh as the guards took turns raping my mother. Then he would look at me and smile at me, sometimes even winking at me. This was followed by him saying, "You could stop this. All you have to do is obey me." Oh how I hated this man. I wanted to do something, anything to help my mother, but the only way I could fight back is by not giving him what he wanted. I had to remind myself over and over that my mother would not want me to break or to give in.

As the hours dragged on and my mother's screams continued, I was getting close to breaking. On the third day the guards where whipping my mother relentlessly. My mother had not moved or made any noise for the last twenty minutes. Then the alarms had gone off and Gresord and the two guards ran out of my holding cell.

About ten minutes later Seven of Nine ran into the room and release me from the chair I was locked in. I quickly made my way to my mom and released her from the wall she had been chained too. I eased her limp body to the ground and went to hug her, but soon I knew my fears where well founded. She was dead. Her eyes were still open and stared up blankly up at me, tears still sliding down her cheeks. At that moment I felt dead inside; my heart had shattered into a million peaces. I did not even notice that Seven had placed her hand on my shoulder or that a few seconds later we where all beamed aboard a shuttle.

End of Flash Back

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A/N: I will upload the next chapter when my beta entilza is fished editing the chapter. I like to thank entilza for betaing my story and inspiring me to write this story. You can search for entilza on fanfiction net for his stories. Any way thanks for reading my story and if like to please tell me what your thoughts are of my story. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Naomi Wildman's reflections of her life since her mother's death 'till the time she is captured by the Borg.

In the days surrounding my mother's funeral, I was a walking zombie; I had become withdrawn from everyone. I was angry with Seven for not coming to save my mother in time. I was angry with Captain Janeway for stalling a rescue attempt in order to attempt a diplomatic solution. But in time I knew it was not Seven's fault; she even went against Captain Janeway and planned a rescue attempt by hacking in to the Praymor Order mainframe and finding where we where located. Seven had stolen a phaser and a shuttlecraft and flew the shuttle into transporter range to the asteroid that we were being held on.

Once on the asteroid Seven had reprogrammed her Nano Probes and injected them into the asteroid's computer system. The riot guns had come online and started shooting at all the guards, allowing Seven to easily rescue me and my dead mother's body.

Once I let my anger go I became much closer to Seven, and I made a new resolution for myself. I would become more like Seven; well educated, strong and powerful. I would never allow my self to be weak or powerless again. I threw myself into my lessons with Seven and the ones I was able to talk the Doctor into giving me. I was able to start researching Nano Probes and Bio-Implants. Nano Probes were what I saw as the next step in my resolution of being more like Seven.

It ended up taking me over a year and a half of research and development to be able to create a safe and nearly undetectable Nano Probe. These Nano Probes matched my DNA which meant they would be able to coexist with my body without rejection. I also made it so that any implant made by my Nano Probes would also be nearly undetectable and my body would not reject them. I also found a better way for my Nano Probes to form new implants. Instead of having the Nano Probes create a stand alone device/Bio-Implant, the implants were made of and operated by trillions of Nano Probes, therefore being able to manufacture smaller and more efficient Bio-Implants.

Once I started to give myself Nano ejections the only visible side effect was that I needed to eat more food so that my body and Nano Probes would have the needed energy to function properly. The Nano Probes could break down food and turn it into energy. Over the course of three months I developed a Cortical Node that improved my brain activity, a Nano Shield Generator and finally a hidden (would blend in with my vain in my right hand) tubule that allowed me to eject my own Nano Probes or interface with a computer through my mind via my Cortical Node.

No one found out what I'd done for almost a whole year. It was an attack on Voyager that caused me to be caught. When a power relay blew up near me I was hurt pretty badly and taken to sick bay. When I was being treated the Doctor noticed I was healing too quickly. My body normally would not have that kind of healing capability. So the doctor started to investigate and as the Doctor had a lot of knowledge about Nano Probes thanks to weekly treatments with Seven of Nine it was one of the first things he looked for. My probes where designed to stay hidden from normal scanners, but if you where specifically looking for them you would find them.

The Doctor, Nelix and Captain Janeway where very unhappy with me to say the least. Seven on the other hand had no problem with my experiments, saying "your designs are very efficient." Seven was always one for self-improvement. For about a week the senior staff of Voyager debated whether they would force me to have my Nano Probes removed. Thanks partly to the Doctor not finding anything that could harm me and him being a believer that anything that makes the body healthier and more resistant should be left alone I was able to keep the Probes and the bio-implants. But my punishment was the loss of my position as Captain's Assistant, loss of my computer access level, which was high for someone of my age, and I was to clean the plasma manifolds for the next six months, which was not my favorite duty.

Over time I slowly regained the trust of the crew of Voyager and regained my privileges. I was even allowed to make upgrades to my implants under supervision from Seven and the Doctor. The upgrades I made to my Bio-Implants where to make them more efficient and making some adjustments that would make my Nano Probes safer for me to have in my body.

Two years after I had been caught with my implants, Nelix my godfather left the ship and me. I could understand why he wanted to be with his own people, but still it hurt. I would never get to see him again. Now I only had Seven of Nine left, who was something of a cross of an older sister and a mentor. Seven always made time for me, even though she was taking care of the four Borg children. I always preferred to spend time with adults. I hated being around kids my supposed age, they always seemed so immature. The Borg children I do admit I grew to like. They where intelligent but unlike me they wanted to be children.

The day we made it back to earth via a Borg Transwarp Hub was a memorable day for the crew of Voyager, but a feeling of dread came over me. Voyager was my home, my life; it was a part of me as I was of it. My memories of my mother were here; I remembered the times we laughed, we sang and played, the times we cried and held each other when we were in pain. When I lay in my bed in the quarters that mother and I shared I could almost hear her speaking to me, reassuring me. Now I would have to leave it. I feared that I would never get to see the ship that had become my home again. I also feared it might be made into a museum, where strange people could be crawling threw the ship, my home, my life.

I soon found out that my remaining family, including my father, where killed in the Dominion War. Things only went down hill from there. Seven and I were ordered to remain at Starfleet Headquarters so that Federation scientists could study us. I felt like a lab rat; I was not allowed to leave the area around Star Fleet Command. Each day lots of tests where preformed on me; I hated it. I was a creature of space, my backyard was the stars. It seemed I would never get to see them again.

Things became even worst when six security officers came to my quarters with phasers drawn and pointed at me. I could see fear in there eyes; they feared me greatly, as if I was the Borg Queen herself. One of the officers stepped forward. He was a Lieutenant and said, "Naomi Wildman you are under arrest. You are being held under the new Borg Security Act. If you resist we will fire on you with deadly force."

I knew that my implants would not protect me from six different phasers set most likely on different frequencies. So I followed the Lieutenant and the other five security officers surrounded me and I was lead to a special holding cell. There was no force field at the entrance to the cell, which was a smart idea because I could adapt to the shield and simply walk threw it. Instead the cell door was made of metal and the lock was not computerized, instead the lock was a simple metal bar that slid into slots on each side of the door. The Lieutenant opened the cell door up and another officer pushed me inside the cell. SLAM… the door shut with a bang. I looked around the small cell, only seeing a small cot and a place to wash and relieve myself. Oh how I longed to see the stars again.

Since the death of my mother I had learned not to hate. But now I started to hate again. I hated Earth, I hated the Federation, I hated being used and I hated being restrained. The Federation was just like most other races I seen on Voyager, fearful and spiteful. Through my cortical node I could contact Seven of Nine on a limited basis. Seven was also locked up in a cell like mine. No one ever came into my cell; food and water was beamed in and out. When they wanted to interrogate me they would use the cell's internal sensor/communication system to ask me questions like if I knew anything about or if I could stop the spread of the Borg virus. Apparently the virus would slowly assimilate you into a Borg drone. The virus was spreading in a few spots around Earth, which of course until now I had no knowledge of.

About two months later the newly promoted Admiral Janeway opened the door to my cell. I must have been a terrible looking sight because Janeway flinched away for a second, then I could see anger crossed her face but I knew it was not directed at me. After a minute Janeway greeted me and led me out of the cell and to a bathroom where it took me twenty minutes to get cleaned up and changed in to the clothes Janeway had given me. Then I looked into the mirror and saw that my hair had grown a great deal, about down to the small of my back. I asked Janeway if she be willing to help me trim my hair to make it even.

Once Janeway finished up with my hair she escorted me out of Starfleet Command and we took a transport to her house. There I was to spend 3 days at Janeway's place until an older class C shuttle could be made ready for me. Janeway had pulled some strings to get me out of jail and soon, Seven would be released too. But to my dismay I had to leave Federation space. Janeway told me that both that she and Seven of Nine were going to try and unravel what was behind the Borg virus. I begged to be allowed to help her and Seven but Janeway said "If you're not off the planet within a week, Starfleet could lock you up again."

The last time I ever got to see Seven alive was when I was being escorted to my shuttle to leave the planet. I hugged both Janeway and Seven and said a tearful goodbye. Then I was beamed abort a small shuttle. The shuttle had been upgraded a bit with a small Replicator and a place to sleep (a bunk bed). I went and sat down at the controls and checked the computer system and found that the shuttle was warp eight capable but the standard traveling speed was only warp seven point two.

I started to go through the computer navigation files, looking for where I should head off too. After about twenty minutes I decided I would head off to the Beta Quadrant. My shuttle had already been taken out into open space so all I had to do was lay in a course at the helm and few seconds later I was at warp. I didn't know where my life might lead me too, but at least I was free and back amongst the stars. I went to the back of the ship and turned on the computer terminal and started planning to add a few Borg upgrades to my little ship to make it more efficient.

One month and three days later I was firmly in the Beta Quadrant and my sensors had detected a nebula that I could use to help re-power my shuttle. I dropped out of warp and started to beam abort a sample of the nebula's gas when my perimeter alert went off. I quickly ran to the main controls and saw that a small Borg Probe vessel was heading my way. I thought to myself "damn, if I never made those upgrades to my ship the Borg probably would have passed me by."

I was being hailed. I pressed a few buttons and an image of the inside of the Borg ship came up on screen and I heard, "We are the Borg. Lower your shields. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile!" A tractor beam locked on to my shuttle and I was being pulled inside the Borg Probe. I tried to break free by remodulating the shields, but the Borg fired three shots at me which disabled my shields. At that moment two Borg drones appeared behind me. One of them stuck me in the neck with their tubicles and I fell into a blissful darkness.

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A/N: I hope you like this chapter, I was planning to post until 11/25. The next chapter is the shortest one, out of the ten chapters I have already written, but it is my favorite chapter so far. I love to hear your comments so please review them.

Quantumsilver asked "I never realized Naomi knew so much about Borg technology?" My answer while in cannon she probably did not know as much about the Borg as I indicate here. Naomi's lessons where taught by Seven and there are few episodes where Naomi show surprising bit knowledge one being the Borg species designations. I also used a bit of creative license.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I woke up in a black void and I was all alone; as I looked around I could only see myself and nothing else. I could feel myself beginning to panic when a soothing voice entered my mind. "Calm yourself my child; you are not alone, and if you take my offer you will never be alone again."

I spun around toward the voice and I saw the Borg Queen. "I...I thought you where dead," I said in a shaking voice.

The Borg Queen laughed softly and smiled at me in a way that reminded me of my mother. "When you are Borg you will never truly die. My thoughts and my memories will forever be a part of the collective. But yes, I was terminated by the future version of Janeway. I am an Artificial Intelligence program that is guided by my memories and thoughts. So in essence I am approximation of what my real self would have thought and done herself."

"Where am I, and what do you want with me?" I asked.

"We are in your mind; I can use your Cortical Node to interface with your thoughts and create a place where you can see me. As for what we want from you that is simple, we want you," the Queen replied.

"Me! What do you mean you want me!?" I asked, afraid and intrigued at the same time.

"The Borg are a collective, all drones are connected to a single point. Through that single point the Borg are able to share thoughts and act as one unit, and from that single point the Borg are given a purpose. When Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One was terminated by the Federation, you where next in line in accordance with the Royal Protocol. You where added just recently…"

"Seven was killed by the Federation?" I asked, feeling my chest tighten.

"It was confirmed," the Queen answered, lowering her head for a moment. "I can show you the last moments of Seven of Nine's life, if that is what you wish," she offered, and I nodded.

Everything went black and a second later I was in what looked to be a large Federation research lab, but there were Borg alcoves resting against the walls. In the center of the room was a large circler device that looked to be a cross of Borg and Federation technology. Inside of the circular ring was a woman dressed in a starfleet uniform who had one too many Borg implant sticking out of her body. I heard the Queen's voice in my head. "You are seeing through Seven of Nine's eyes. I will start the play back now."

The room seemed to unfreeze and I heard the woman in the ring-like device. "Well, well, if it is not Seven of Nine. I must say it is a pleasure to meet you. You will make a very useful Borg dron…" I, or I should say Seven, lifted her arm and shot something at the woman. When it hit her she stopped speaking. The woman started to scream and within a few seconds she started to shake violently. After about thirty seconds the woman fell back against the circler device, deceased.

I felt myself moving forward when a hand grabbed me. I spun around and saw Admiral Janeway. "Seven…" she spoke, and I interrupted her and said in Sevens voice, "I must do this; it has to be done. Please let me do this." Janeway hesitated for a moment, and then she nodded her head in acceptance. I felt myself moving toward the circler device. Once at the device I pressed a few buttons. The device opened up and I pulled the dead woman out of the circler ring and stepped inside it and pressed another button. As I turned around again to face Janeway I saw a bunch of Starfleet officers rush into the room. Three of them raised their phasers and fired at me. I felt the beams hit me and I fell back. At the same time I heard Janeway yell "NOOOOO!!" After that all I saw was the ground before blackness covered everything.

I'm not sure how it was possible with my mind stuck in Seven's last moments of her life, but I felt tears running down my face. Seven was now dead; the only person I considered family that I had left had been killed by Starfleet. I was truly alone, I had nothing; everyone I ever had cared for was dead. I had nothing to live for. The only thing I seemed to have left was my hate, for I hated the Federation with a passion as they had taken away almost everything I cared for and loved. I longed for the days when Voyager was in the Delta Quadrant, surrounded by the stars where we were happy, where we were a family. But that was the past and I was in the present, alone.

The room where Seven was killed faded away and the blackness had returned. I felt a hand touch my shoulder and the former Queen's voice in my mind. "Join us, become our queen and you will never be alone again; no one will ever be able to take us away from you. We will fight for you, protect you and forever be with you. Let us fill the void in your heart."

I turned to the queen and looked at her. Oh how I long to fill the void in my heart. It was too late for me. I could feel myself accepting the Queen's offer. I needed this. I could not live the rest of my life alone. Suddenly I felt voices fill my mind, first a few, then a few hundred and then millions. It was overwhelming, it was all too much, and I could not handle it. The queen's voice drowned out the other voices and said, "It will be ok my child, follow my thoughts and we will construct a system in your mind so you can handle the voices of the collective."

I did as I was told and I put all my focus into following what the queen wanted me to see and do. I complied and within minutes I had created something. I'm not sure how I would describe it, a system of sorts that allowed me to sort out and categorize the voices in a way I understood and was able to handle them. Soon the pain went away and what was left was the collective. It was amazing; I felt like I was in thousands of different places at once but at the same time still in the darkness standing next to the former queen.

"Who are you?" The former Queen asked.

I thought about it for a moment and then I heard the voices of the collective speak to me. I listened, then I knew, and I answered. "I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg. I am the Collective. I bring order to chaos. I am Naomi of Borg, the Queen of the Borg."

The former Queen smiled. "Yes, that is right, you are the Borg, and you will never be alone again. It is time for you to wake up. The collective needs its queen; the collective needs to rebuild. You were chosen to bring a new era of greatness to the Borg. You where chosen for your imagination, something that the Borg have lacked for far too long. I will be here to assist you and answer any questions that you need answered. Now awaken, Queen of the Borg."

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A/N: Please tell me what you think of my story so far. In a few days I will post the next chapter. I again thank my beta Entilza for his great work. any way thanks for reading and please review I loved to read them. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was that I was standing in some sort of chamber. The voices of the collective whispered to me and I instantly knew I was standing inside of a maturation chamber. I took a few shaky steps forward and nearly fell flat on my face, barely catching myself on the door frame. I felt different somehow, and images and thoughts rushed into my mind and I knew exactly what had been done to improve my body.

The Borg had used my memories and thoughts of the research I had done in Nano and Bio-implant technology in my re-creation, my rebirth. All of my internal organs had been changed to a perfect balance of organic and inorganic. One benefit of this was that if something were to attack my living tissue my body could adapt itself with inorganic systems until the attack was terminated or vice versa. My bone structure had been replaced with Tritanium, a compound 21.4 times as hard as a diamond, and Bitanium was used in the core of all my bones which, with the help of my Nano Probes, could transmit information at a much more efficient rate then my natural nervous system could ever accomplish. My strength, agility and reflexes had all been improved by a factor of twelve.

My brain had undergone the most changes. Like my other organs, my brain was a perfect balance of organic and inorganic. The most significant change being that my neuro pathways had been replaced with a whole system of Nano Probes that in a way worked like my old nervous system did. The Probes created a highly complex network of Nano Probes. My mind's ability to process and retain information was exceptionally improved, along with a greatly increased ability to multitask. I had an internal sensor network integrated into my body which allowed me to gather data about the environment around me and also made my personal shield generator much more efficient. The sensor data would help me adapt to whatever weapon was being fired at me.

The pathways to my eyes had also been enhanced and one of my eyes was replaced with an artificial one that could see a whole multitude of visual spectrums. I could now see in very low light, infrared, and different radioactive activities. I could even adjust the eye to see down to microscopic levels.

Once I had remastered walking I strided over to the nearest drone and with a single thought he ended his regeneration cycle and looked at me. I could see threw his eyes and was able see myself as if I was looking in a mirror. I could see very few visual changes to my outer body. My face mostly looked the same as I remembered. I looked like a sixteen year old teenage girl. I still had long, light brown hair. My single organic eye still looked human but the color had changed from a light grey to a bright green. My skin was still pale white, if not a bit paler then it was before. I knew that while my skin looked perfectly normal it was actually a cross of enhanced skin tissue and a mixture of a rare diamond compound that made my skin very resistant to damage.

The only other visible implant was my right hand; it looked lot like Seven of Nine's with a metal lattice covering my hand. The device was very complex and would not have been possible without my idea of making an implant composed mostly of Nano-Probes. The device allowed me to generate a stream of electrical energy or produce a small tractor beam that could be reversed, therefore allowing me to push or pull objects to me. I could also shoot tiny high-speed Nano pellets which would allow me to assimilate a person or computer system from a distance. I could of course use my tubicles to do the same task up close and personal.

I saw through the drone's eyes that I was wearing a black body suit that reminded me of the one that Seven of Nine often wore. My armored suit was designed to help protect me from a multitude of dangers and additionally was able to adsorb ambient heat and energy into my body. While appearances were by Borg standards where irrelevant ,I thought that in a strange way I looked beautiful. I could see myself smiling. I could hear the entire collective and in that moment I knew I was no longer alone. I was no longer powerless compared to those beings who wished to harm me out of fear.

I released the drone I was using to look myself over and he went back to his alcove as I started looking inwards. I began studying the state that we the Borg where in, to see what needed to be done to bring us back to where we had been and beyond, to bring us closer to perfection. We needed to rebuild. We had lost so much when the future version of Janeway introduced the pathogen into the collective. Unimatrix Zero-One and much of what was in the Delta Quadrant had been destroyed before safety parameter 003 initiated which stopped the spread of the pathogen.

I also learned what had been going on at Earth. The former Queen it seemed had been successful in creating a virus that would slowly assimilate the planet. The plan would have worked if it was not for the action of Commander Diana Scotts. She was a researcher for the Federation and her duty was to find away to counteract the Borg threat. Through her research she learned of program 001 and, with the return of Voyager and the news of the former Queen's termination, she devised a plan. She would try and corrupt the Royal protocol and make herself the next Borg Queen.

"Such arrogance," I thought to myself, "to think that she could simply make herself the Queen of the Borg. How little that pathetic woman knew." One did not decide that they were to be the next Borg Queen, they were chosen both by the collective and the memories of all the former Borg queens. Program 001 had resisted Commander Scotts's attempts and because of this she could only command the drones on Earth. This had led to weakening of the virus that was to assimilate Earth.

The Federation was able to stop the spread of the virus when Seven of Nine terminated the wannabee queen. The Federation was able to use Commander Scotts's personal logs to devise a way to stop the spread and even reverse the virus. It seemed Seven of Nine was willing to become the queen in order to destroy herself and the entire collective at once. The short-sightedness of the Federation had led to them killing Seven out of fear and ignorance. My loathing for the Federation only grew as I was learning of these facts through the collective.

Forcing the hateful thoughts out of my mind, I turned my attention to more pressing items, the main need being the reconstruction of the collective. We needed a place to construct new vessels for the collective and I started to go threw the Borg database of all the different species we had encountered. Soon I found the perfect candidate, species 521 who called them self the Shivolians in spatial grid 403. The last scan of species 521's system had shown that they possessed five different orbital construction platforms capable of creating large starships. These shipyards would be adapted to service us.

There was a Sphere just outside of range of the nebula, and with a mental call the Sphere sent its code to the platform that protected this planet within the nebula. While I was waiting for the Sphere I checked to see what ships I had at my disposal and I found that I had Cubes 04589, 00483 and 01294 that could be in spatial grid 403 around the same time I would be arriving there myself. I sent a mental order to the three cubes and again I got a response immediately from the three cubes saying they would comply. About ten minutes later I was beamed aboard Sphere 07287.

Once I was on board Sphere 07287 I could tell that we had immediately entered into transwarp via my link to the collective. I started to walk around the ship,and one thing I soon found out was that while a Borg ship was very efficient it had little in way of creature comforts.

I was beginning to realize now that I was lot different then the previous Borg Queens. When the other Borg Queens had gained their positions a great deal of their individuality was suppressed as well. They did not feel the need to have a bed or the desire to entertain themselves; they simply brought order to chaos and gave the Borg direction. In my case the Borg needed someone who still had creativity and an imagination, so almost all of what made me Naomi Wildman was still present.

Without realizing it a whole host of drones had terminated their regeneration cycles and started clearing out a small area on the ship, making me a small room that I could use for as long as I needed it. It was not until I was informed through my link that my temporary chambers where completed that I realized that the collective were even constructing a room for me. I would have to pay closer attention to the collective, for I knew I was still adapting to better control my influence over the hive mind. It seemed it would take little effort on my part to get the collective to do something for me; even a stray thought on my part and they would jump into action to do my bidding.

I quickly made my way to my new temporary quarters, guided by the collective. I found a small circular room that had a bed which also acted as my alcove where I could regenerate. There was a desk which had a variety of computer terminals on it and a large yet comfortable looking chair set behind it, and the wall in front of my desk was a large view screen. Overall my quarters were small and sparse, but it was sufficient for my needs as of right now.

I felt tired and I was also in need of regeneration, but before I went to bed I decided that my ship and the three cubes I was using for the attack should be cloaked for a total surprise attack. I sat down at my desk and called up all the information on cloaking technologies that we had assimilated. I was astonished at all of the information I was receiving and that I was able to completely remember and understand it all.

I then called up everything we knew about species 521 and after a little bit of studying I had selected a simple yet efficient method of cloaking that would not be detected by any sensor technology that species 521 possessed. I prepared to send out a command to the sphere and cubes 04589, 00483 and 01294 to adapt the cloaking device I have selected. However the collective had already seen and heard my thoughts and were already carrying out my directive to the applicable vessels. I laughed to myself and knew it was time for me to regenerate. When I woke up it would almost be time for the attack.

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A/N: I hope you liked the story so far. Please remember to review and tell what you and if you any ideas.

Damien


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

When I started my regeneration cycle I found myself in the black void of my mind once more. I looked around and saw the former queen materialize in front of me.

"Why are we here again? Is there more that you needed to inform me of?" I asked.

The former queen smiled at me, her warm expression again bringing back images of my mother and tugging at my heart. "I am here to communicate the fact that while you are regenerating you can come back here to ask for advice and or ideas. I have learned that individuals share and develop ideas primarily through verbal communication. Personally I find the process inefficient and cumbersome, but I cannot deny the results that have come from this form of communication. So while it is true that you have access to my memories and those of the other previous queens through the collective's memory, that would not provide you with the ability of the humans' form of problem solving. So my AI will act as what humans call a… second head."

"I understand; so I was chosen to be the queen because of my individuality. The Borg wanted and needed someone who could truly think like an individual. Consequently that is why I haven't undergone the normal process that new queens go through," I replied.

"You are correct," the former Queen said. "You are truly unique. We chose you not only because of your individuality, but also because of your goal for perfection in your own mind. You wanted to be more like Seven of Nine; well educated, strong and powerful, to never allow yourself to be weak or powerless again. You might not have known it at the time, but you where striving for perfection. When we saw this in you, program 001 knew you would be perfect for the designation of queen."

"I understand now," I said.

"We must terminate this communication for now. There is a tremendous amount of data that must be downloaded into your mind. When your regeneration cycle ends you will know where every Borg ship is located without having to ask the collective, and we will start transferring data regarding the technology we are currently using, though this will take many regeneration cycles. Now then, as the humans like to say, goodnight Naomi of Borg," the Queen said as she embraced me and I returned he gesture, feeling the ragged wound in my heart being healed with the soothing touch of the collective. "Sleep well."

After the former queen's parting words my higher brain functions shut down and the collective initiated data transfer subroutine 0231.83. I would only be awoken when my regeneration cycle ended or the collective needed me to be aware.

…

My regeneration cycle had taken ten hours and with a click the humming of the hidden power transfer module ceased and I felt myself becoming conscious again, a small smile still on my face. I sat up in my bed, and the first thing I noticed was that I had a lot of new memories that I did not have before. For example, I knew that right now I was in spatial grid 403 without using my link to check with the collective. Sphere 07287 had been in spatial grid 403 for the last eight point two hours. I cursed to myself and asked why I had not awoken when we had arrived

In my mind I heard the former Queen respond to my question. "You were in need of complete regeneration. Without full regeneration you would be less efficient. You will need to complete full regeneration cycles for eleven additional days as your primary and secondary power systems both need to be charged. I would not wish for you to collapse during the middle of your attack," she said, and I felt her mental touch in my mind and smiled at the sensation.

I sighed in resignation, but I knew that the collective was correct. I should not rush things too quickly. I got up out of my bed and at the same time began stretching myself. I had not moved once in the last ten hours and loosened my stiff limbs as I made my way to my desk. With complete knowledge of where all of my ships where located, I decided I needed to make a few alterations. First I recalled over four hundred vessels to spatial grid 403, which would be the Collective's base of operations for a while. I then ordered a select group of vessels to start replacing the communication arrays throughout the galaxy that had been lost. It was essential to maintain the collective's link to all our remaining ships and planets. Finally, I ordered the rest of my ships to seek out and scan for species that would be worthy of assimilation and also to search for the resources the collective needed.

I was just now realizing how much damage the future version of Admiral Janeway had caused to the Borg. We had lost so much to Janeway's pathogen. If it had not been for the actions of the former queen, we the Borg would have been completely destroyed. The former queen had terminated herself and initiated safety parameter 003 to stop the spread of the pathogen. That single action had saved the Borg, and I bowed my head in respect for what she had done for the collective.

A few seconds later I raised my head and started planning the attack on species 521. I wanted a perfect surprise attack so that our losses would be minimal. With a thought I had Sphere 07287 and Cubes 04589, 00483 and 01294 run a passive scan of the defenses of our target world. I reviewed the results quickly and learned that the planet had a very powerful planetary shield, but because of the power requirements it would only be activated during an attack. It would take forty two point three seconds to charge up and another two point six seconds to completely envelop the planet with a shield. The orbital construction platforms also had powerful shields, but because of the need for small construction pods to weave around the platforms their shields would be down as well and it would take four point four seconds for the shields to be raised on each platform. The last defense was an array of unmanned orbital energy cannons, most clustered around the planet's moon, and ground to space torpedo batteries.

With the gathered information I selected the most optimal locations for the Cubes to take. Cube 04589 would be in orbit at the northern pole where shield generator 1 was located on the planet and would also be in direct firing range to two of the five construction platforms. Cube 01294 would be in orbit at the southern pole where shield generator 2 was located on the planet and would also be in firing range of one of the construction platforms. Cube 04589 would be at a much further distance from the planet, which would place it in range of the remaining two construction platforms and would be dealing with most of the planet's energy cannon batteries.

To take both the planetary shield grid and the construction platforms' shields off-line I had come up with a few modifications of our torpedoes. The collective was already adapting my modifications to a select number of torpedoes. The warheads would have an optimized blast field that would only disable, not destroy. I also added another surprise; the blast from the torpedoes would carry trillions of Nano Probes, assimilating everything in their path. I could not help smiling at that thought.

The last adaptation I needed was a way to disrupt species 521's targeting scanners, which would make their defense systems largely irrelevant. Species 521 used a unique detection system that would lock on to a ships energy signature. In a battle it was almost impossible to cloak an energy signature, but I had a different plan. I would have the Cubes create a class three phase variance in their power grids, making it almost impossible for Species 521 to get an accurate target lock; they would be chasing reflections and sensor ghosts.

Now that all of the needed preparations had been completed, it was time to engage species 521. I was excited to see how my plan would work, and I found myself pacing the length of my chamber. Centering myself, I sent out a hail with a thought. A few seconds later my view screen was filled with the image of a tall humanoid alien with large beady eyes and black, scaly skin. "I am Second Dore Saythoth of the Shivolian Defense Corps. Please state your identity and what your intentions are."

"Very well, I will comply with your request," I replied, keeping a smile in check for the moment. "I am Naomi of Borg, Queen of the Borg. You will lower your shields and surrender. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

Dore Saythoth stared at me for a few seconds and then started laughing so hard he almost fell out of his chair. I was quickly getting very annoyed with this man, and a visible frown replaced my hidden smile.

After a minute Dore Saythoth calmed himself and looked back at me, breathing a bit heavy after his laughing spell. "While that was the best joke I have heard in months, you have violated our laws and can be sentenced to a year in one of our work colonies, which is no place for a little girl like you. But I must say that was an exceptional performance; you almost had me."

I felt indignant at Dore Saythoth's statement. I was not a liar, and as the Queen of the Borg I felt that I deserved some respect. I looked to the right and at that moment my three Cubes decloaked and released their torpedoes. A few seconds later I could see the room Dore Saythoth was in shaken by our attack. "Do you still believe that I am joking?" I asked, and I could see the fear begin to cross Dore Saythoth's face. I took pleasure from that.

It took us less then a minute to completely disable all of species 521's defenses. The cubes where now releasing atmospheric torpedoes which would disperse Nano Probes into the atmosphere, where they would begin to assimilate every person on the planet. I could already hear thousands of new voices joining the collective. I looked back up at my view screen and decided I would let Dore Saythoth witness the complete assimilation of his race, just to make sure he did not think of me as a liar.

With a thought I sent fifteen drones to the communications room that Dore Saythoth was in, and ten seconds later I joined them. I appeared in a large U shaped room chamber which was a silvery gray color. The room slightly resembled a Greek amphitheater. Steps lead up from the center of the room to where workstations where arranged on the second level dais. At the front of the room there was a very large view screen. I saw that Dore Saythoth was spinning around in circles with a weapon in his hand as he watched all of his colleagues being injected with Nanoprobes and beamed away.

When he saw me he spun around and sighted his weapon to fire at me. But I was quicker and with barely a thought I lifted my right hand and used my tractor beam to yank the weapon out of his hand, or that was my intention anyway. I ended up pulling him face first to the ground while at the same time crushing the bones in his hand and dislocating those in his right arm. Dore Saythoth started howling in pain, and I closed my eyes, reprogramming a newly formed Nano pellet. Then with a flexing of my hand the pellet shot out and hit Dore Saythoth in the chest. Within a few seconds the Nano Probes spread through his system, forming a Cortical Node which suppressed the pain he was feeling and allowed me to see his surface thoughts, although his individuality was still intact.

Dore Saythoth stopped screaming and sat up, cradling his right arm. I could hear him moaning in despair about the condition of his right arm and hand. "Stop your sniveling!" I snapped. "A simple amputation will cure that problem right up." This only seemed to make things worst. I could feel a cruel smile cross my lips. This fool would learn that you did not get away with disrespecting me.

"Come on, stand up; you are missing my big day," I said casually. With a thought the main view screen started displaying security images from elsewhere on the planet and aboard the construction platforms. I started explaining. "As you can see, the assimilation process is a bit different then before. With the use of my new designs, Bio-Implants are no longer rejected by the living body and so we no longer have to suppress the body's immune system. This means that now we can create a perfect balance of organic and inorganic systems. Therefore my drones no longer need to look like living corpses."

I turned a way from the view screen and saw that Saythoth was not even paying attention to me. He was just staring in horror at the view screen. "Are you even listening to me?!" I yelled. He turned to me and I could hear him thinking that I was totally insane. "Hold on a second, I will do a self diagnostic," I said. I close my eyes and performed the diagnostic and found that my systems were running normal. "I have found that all my systems are running within normal parameters, which means I'm perfectly sane," I smiled. He started backing away from me in pure terror.

"Please, just end it. Please, I will do anything, just stop this!" He begged me. I thought about his request for a moment and decided that he had suffered enough for his insult. "Very well, I will comply," I finally replied. With another thought the Nano Probes in Dore Saythoth's body started to assimilate him and his body was beamed away. I turned my attention back to the assimilation of species 521, which was proceeding with perfection.

* * *

A/N: I wished to thank slarneth, Shadowtheory and tillallareone for there reviews of the last. I hope you liked this chapter and please tell me what you think in a review.

Until next time.

Damien


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The assimilation of species 521 was completed in three hours, forty eight minutes and twenty nine point five seconds from the time since the first torpedo was launched. I had lost four hundred and thirty-seven drones and considered this a very successful assimilation. The population of the planet was 13,182,230,852, with most of the population lived in sprawling city centers. 13,182,227,621 had been assimilated; the remaining 3,231 were thought to be missing or deceased.

The collective did not acquire much in way of technology, but with the large number of new drones the collective would be able to crew the vessels that were about to be built. On the newly designated construction platform 001, which was the largest of the five platforms, I had found through the collective a room that reminded me of Voyager's mess hall with five large view ports over seeing space and the planet below. The sight was breath taking, and I directed the collective to make the room into my personal chambers. As I was standing there, I could almost see myself back aboard Voyager, with the crew milling around me and Neelix behind the counter, stirring and mixing a dozen dishes at once. I could smell the delicious aromas and if I concentrated hard enough I could see my mother standing beside me, smiling. A tear slid down my cheek as I tried to hold onto the ghostly images around me, but they gradually faded, laving me along again except for the collective, but the collective was all I needed.

…

While my chambers where being constructed I over saw the reconstruction of platforms 001 through 005. I would make changes when needed, but the collective mind had things well in hand, so my mind moved on to our next problem. The construction of new ships took massive amounts of energy, a resource the Collective was in need of if my plans were to proceed. I started by having the collective send me everything it possessed in way of power creation. My mind was being filled with information as I stared out through a small view port at this system's sun.

The idea hit me like a supernova wave. The sun! Stars generated massive amounts of energy, more then anything that we knew of. Even being able to siphon the smallest portion of the sun's energy would give us all the energy we would ever need for the construction of our vessels. I terminated the data feed from the collective and instead asked for any technology that we had assimilated which could be used to draw energy from a star.

Immediately I found positive results. Species 376, who called themselves the Glavodorens, had developed an orbital array that used a narrow bandwidth gravimetric beam to pull a stream of plasma up from a star. The project had failed for two reasons, one being the gravimetric beam was not very stable and the second reason was plasma obtained from the star destroyed the internal circuitry repeatedly. Because of this the collective had designated the technology as irrelevant.

That designation would soon be changed to relevant. While the collective was very adaptable, it did not have the imagination required to develop new technologies, only to assimilate them. I would be rectifying this inefficiency soon, but for now I had a solar array to design and then I needed to find an efficient method of power transfer to our construction platforms. I already had ideas forming in my mind. It was astonishing what one could create with the collective's database of technology. I knew that there were numerous beings who would kill for even a fraction of the knowledge the Borg collective possessed.

I was snapped out of my contemplation by the collective informing me that my chambers had been completed. With little prompting the collective activated the transporter system and I was beamed into the corridor outside my quarters, and the doors automatically slid open. The first thing I noticed was a force field blocking the way in. I grinned to myself and simply walked through it. That had always been one of my favorite Borg tricks. I could still remember the first time I had accomplished that on board Voyager. I had felt incredible, as if I could do anything, but I'd known that if I told anyone I'd be in a lot of trouble. I wished Seven had been able to see me then.

It seemed the collective took the security of its queen very seriously and would go to any lengths to make sure of it. I shook myself from my inner thoughts and took a look around what would be my new home until my ship was completed. In front of me and to my left was a large desk, which was more of an advanced computer terminal build to look like a desk. Behind the desk was of course a large chair. But what immediately drew my attention was the large glowing red symbol of the collective occupying most of the floor. I thought it very appropriate; the galaxy would learn to respect this symbol as we brought peace, order and perfection to all the misguided races of the stars.

To the right of the desk and in front of me were three large bay windows which had the view that I loved and cherished so much, the view of the stars. Off to my right was another door, and as I walked up to the door it slid open and I found another force field guarding the place where I would regenerate. The room was smaller then my office, only having a bed which was also my alcove and a small couch, both of which were facing the bay windows. I found the two rooms to be very elegant and efficient; they where perfect for my needs as of right now.

I walked back to my office and sat down in the chair, testing it. It was very comfortable and supported my body perfectly. I turned on the computer; it was time for me to get to work, and I had a lot to do. I needed to design both the solar power array and my new ship. I decided that I should review the designs of the Borg Diamond which would be my flagship. I had the collective both initiate a data transfer to my mind and display the information on my computer terminals.

I found that the Borg Diamond was a defensive ship that used its multiple power cores to generate a very impressive shield grid, but almost immediately I decided that I would be making some changes. I had an idea that I remembered from one of my numerous lessons with Seven of Nine which could greatly improve the Diamond's energy generation system. A Borg Diamond had six anti-matter reactors. I would have three of the reactors create positive energy and the other three create negative energy. I would then have the positive energy merge with the negative, which would cause the positive energy to attempt to convert the negative energy into positive energy. This would cause a fusion collapse and create an explosion four times greater than the energy output of the original positive and negative energy that had been introduced into the reaction.

The main problem with this style of energy amplification was that the explosion could never be controlled because the explosion was both positive and negative and there was no opposite force to contain the explosion. But with the development of the Harmonic Resonance Chamber designed to contain Particle 010, or as the Federation knew it as, the Omega molecule, I now had the key I needed. I could use the chamber to adapt the fusion collapse's explosion to an opposite harmonic frequency which would give us complete control over the reaction.

Since I had already figured out the concept and a theoretical method of controlling this form of energy amplification, I would let the collective create and carry out my experiments out, which would needed to be preformed in a remote region of space. The collective informed me of their compliance. It even seemed that they were truly keen to perform this experiment. I heard the collective clarify. "This fusion collapse reaction is that of perfection. This will take us a step closer to perfection." With that response I understood completely the collective's actions and desire.

With the energy amplification in the collective's capable hands, I turned my thoughts back on to creating the orbital solar array. I worked on the array calculations for over ten hours, trying to find the frequency needed to create a stable gravimetric beam. Once I thought I had found the correct frequency I decided to go and regenerate. Tomorrow I would find out if my calculations where accurate.

I got up out of my chair feeling stiff and walked to my bedroom and lay down, sinking a bit into the mattress. I heard the building hum of the hidden power transfer module and closed my eyes as I pulled the warm sheets over myself.

As soon as I dozed off I found myself in the now familiar void of darkness. A second later I saw the former queen materialize in front of me. She looked very proud of me, and I smiled. "I must say I am impressed with your actions of today. Your assimilation of species 521 was nearly flawless. The tactics you used have never been used by the collective before. Then you out-do your self with the innovative technology that you are developing. The solar ray will of course be an efficient means of power gathering, but what I find truly astounding is that idea that you formed when you where eight years old of fusion collapsing energy amplification. It is stuff of perfection; positive and negative energy being brought together to create energy grater then its separate parts. You may very well be the one who brings the collective Particle 010. You are the Borg forged by the Federation. If it were not for their actions you would have been the cause of our termination. For instance, the pathogen that the future Admiral Janeway infected us with was created by you, sometime in the future.

I was completely in shock at the former queen's words. I had created, or would have created, the pathogen that had nearly destroyed the Borg? "Are you positive?" I asked, a cold feeling settling deep in my stomach.

The former queen must have sensed my horror, and she wrapped her arms around me, I of course doing likewise. "The collective knows you better then you know yourself," she said, "but you were the creator with the help of Seven of Nine. Do not feel guilty for your actions. Your mind this time will be used against the Federation. They will learn what they have lost and what we have gained. Their mistake will be their downfall and our rise to perfection. But now it is time for you to fully regenerate and allow the collective to continue data transfer subroutine 0231.83.2 Goodnight, Naomi of Borg," she whispered, and I quickly felt myself fading in her arms, feeling absolutely content.

* * *

A/N: Slarneth said "Naomi has a mean streak, how... un-Borg like. -- despite the Borgs insistence on attaining perfection they were until now anyway massively flawed, this fic shows that nicely."

My response is that the Borg wants and needs Naomi's human side to remain intact just with out her morals, those could get in the way of being willing to assimilate an entire civilization. I have also written a very dark chapter that shows this even more. I am still debating with my self if I should post the chapter for it will raise the story rating to M and it is truly dark and un-Borg like but I felt compelled to write it, but it is quite a few chapters off, - ch16. Perhaps you as my readers can help me decide if I should post it. Simply leave review if you have opinion.

Any way thank you for reading and reviewing.

Until next time.

Damien


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The last two weeks had been highly productive for the collective. The construction platforms had been fully adapted to build Borg ships, and thirty-two Cubes and sixty-seven Spheres had been fully constructed. The reason why we were able to construct ships so quickly was from my idea to use a liberal amount of Nanoprobes. The newly constructed ships were made up of over thirty percent Nanoprobes. Because of this the new ships had better regenerative abilities then their older counterparts.

Over the last two weeks the collective had assimilated three different planets. Two of the worlds were settled by species 428, who called them selves the Abnorgens, who had settled on the only habitable planets in their system. We also assimilated the home world of species 316. They were a primitive race but made great tactical drones. In all we had assimilated over 9.8 billion drones.

My newly designed solar power array had been in operation for fours days, sixteen hours and thirty two minutes. The array used a power transfer beam to move the energy from the solar array to a distribution array which would give the five construction platforms the needed power. We were running low of resources that we could use to break down and generate power, but with the new solar array this was no longer an issue. It had taken the collective four days of testing to find the precise frequency that would contain and control the fusion collapse, then taking an additional two days to craft an efficient Harmonic Resonance Containment Core.

The construction of my ship was slow going, mainly because I kept making changes to the ship's systems. With the successful creation of the energy amplification system, many new doors had been opened up to me. Firstly I had been designing a new multi-layer shield grid. Now that Borg ships had the power to produce more then one shield grid, I was no longer limited to a single shield technology and devised a three layer system. The first layer would be a dispersal dampening field which would absorb any energy based weapons. The main weakness with this type of shield was that kinetic weapons like torpedoes would pass right through. The second layer would be a modified Deflector field which would be calibrated to protect us against kinetic based weapons. The last layer would be the standard adaptive shield that we normally used and would be fused with the dampening layer as soon as adaptation to an enemy weapon was complete.

I then turned my attention to the weapons system. When I was younger I was taught that sometimes the best defense is a good offence. The weapon system was much simpler than the shields. The more power you have the more powerful the energy beam would be. With this thought in mind I added more cutting and holding beam emitters to the design specs of my ship. I also found that the Diamond's new power system generated the needed power to efficiently replicate torpedoes inside the launch tubes, which meant my ship would have a seemly endless supply of torpedoes. Lastly, I added one additional weapon, an Ultritium Burst weapon which would fire a powerful burst of energy capable of severely damaging any ship within a five hundred meter radius.

I had also added a large variety of sensors that had come from many different species, giving me a very large number of scans that I would be able to perform, from molecular to tachyon to multiphasic. I also had three different types of cloaking systems put in. These three systems would be able to conceal the ship from most known scanning technologies. I was also worried about the ship's safety and developed a wide range of fail-safe systems. I did not want to take any chances, especially with the new energy amplification system. I had also personally designed my chambers. The ship would be my home until it was time to reconstruct Unimatrix One, and I wanted my chambers to be perfect.

…

Today was the final day of construction on my flagship. For the last two weeks I had been splitting my time between creating the solar energy array and designing my new ship. I was really excited; I would not let myself board the ship until it was finished, which would be within an hour. While I had seen the ship through the eyes of the collective, it was not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. I felt like a little girl again who could not wait to open up a present. I was pacing back and forth in my small office aboard platform 001 when the collective whispered to me that the ship had been completed. I nearly ran out of the office to airlock 01.

Four minutes later I was walking through the narrow corridors of my new ship. The corridors that I was walking through looked just like the ones on any other Borg vessel. My first stop would be to see the Harmonic Resonance Containment Core, which was not active yet. I would allow my self that honor. The Containment Core was near the very center of the ship, which also happened to be near my chambers.

The room that held the Harmonic Resonance Containment Core was a large square chamber. Along the walls of the chamber were alcoves for the drones who would maintain the power enhancement core, and in the center of the chamber was a large sphere which appeared to be made of dark green glass. Around the spherical core were three computer terminals equally spaced around the core. I walked up to the terminal and pressed a few keys on the controls. I was redirecting a small amount of power from the six antimatter matter chambers to the Harmonic Resonance Containment Core. With a few more commands entered into the control consol, I had turned on the harmonic resonance field and had three of the six of the ships anti-matter chamber produce negative energy instead of positive energy.

The Harmonic Resonance Containment Core started pulsing in time with the power surges that were being delivered into the chamber, creating a fusion energy collapse. As soon as I saw that the reaction was stable I started to slowly allow more and more energy into the chamber until the core was running at peak performance. I had already switched the ship's power source from the six separate anti-matter generators to the Harmonic Resonance Containment Core. The amount of power the ship was generating was truly astounding.

I smiled to myself; in time all of our ships would be running on this form of power enhancement. The Borg had always been a very powerful race, but now we were becoming a force to be truly reckoned with. With one last glance at the pulsing containment core, I turned around and walked out of the room and decided to go see my new chambers. My chambers where another level up from where the Core was at, a ride in the lift up a single level and I was standing outside of two large double doors. The only doors on the ship were the ones that led into my chambers.

As I walked up the doors they silently swung open, and I gasped at the sight of my audience chamber/office. The room was large and a rectangular shape, made up of a metal that was black and gave off a silver like glow. I could barely see the walls to the sides of me as they where hidden by shadows. Hidden by the shadows were Borg alcoves. The back wall and the floor where illuminated by green light. On the floor was a large symbol of the Borg collective which pulsed a greenish color. Below where the Borg symbol located was the Harmonic Resonance Containment Core, and the pulsing light was coming from the chamber below. At the back of the room was a large throne like chair and on each side of the chair was a large banner depicting the Borg symbol. I could also barely make out two arched doors, one on each side of the room that where near the chair.

What you could not see in the chamber were the holo-emitters which allowed me to create whatever I wanted in this room. I decided to test it out and with a thought a desk with a computer terminal appeared in front of my chair and with a second thought it disappeared. I could not help myself, I was smiling, I loved this room. I walked through the door off to the left to see my lab.

The lab was setup like I wished. The room was rectangular shaped like the audience chamber, and throughout the room I saw a wide range of testing equipment set up. The equipment was grouped by categories of use around three of the walls. For example energy based scanners had their own workstation, the bio scanner another, and so forth. Along the wall where there was no testing equipment where hidden alcoves; the drones in these alcoves where here to help me in whatever project I may be working on. In the center of the room were also two large flat Holo/Replicator tables for prototypes and schematics to be displayed.

I left the lab and crossed the audience chamber to the last door which led to my bedroom. My bedroom was like the audience chamber in that it was equipped with holo-emitters; the only real object in the room was my bed alcove. The room looked like a darker version of my bedroom on Voyager with the exception of this room having larger bay windows then the ones in my old room on Voyager that over looked the stars. It was all holographic and so I could change anything in the room but the location of my bed with a thought to the collective.

I made my way back to my audience chamber and sat down in my large chair. I needed to test the ship's systems and the best way to do that was by a real life situation. With a thought to the collective the room went dark and a large holographic image of the galaxy appeared before me. The galaxy was marked by quadrants, planets, nebulas, small space objects like asteroids and comets, territory held by different species and known location of ships. All of the collective ships and worlds were clearly marked. The map was probably one of the most accurate in the galaxy.

I felt my thoughts drifting to my time on Voyager. I was remembering all of the different places we stop and explored nebulas, planets and many other strange and amazing things. Then the images of the capture of mother and I came up, unbidden. I felt a single tear roll down my face, and then my hatred of Gresord boiled in my heart. I would never forget that name for as long as I lived. Then a thought crossed my mind; unlike before I now had the power to get my revenge.

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A/N: I wish to thank quantumsilver and Blake Wilson for there nice reviews. I do love to read reviews so please don't hesitated to do so, they help me to keep writing.

Until next time

Damien


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

A truly evil smirk crossed my face as I realized I'd found a target to test out my new ship on. Species 753, who called them selves the Colmorders, were an average post-warp civilization technology-wise. The government that ran species 753 was based off of a long dead religion called the Praymor Order, which over several centuries had evolved into a decadent dictatorship. The leader of the order was called the Chancellor, and the current chancellor was a man named Fresavfo. Through the collective I learned that Chancellor Fresavfo was a very corrupt leader. He was partly responsible for what had happened to my mother. Over the years he had been in power he had passed a multitude of laws that helped fill his pockets with money. If a trader of goods, or even a visitor, did not pay Chancellor Fresavfo the proper tribute, then they would be held under the "outsider protection laws," which where designed to entrap unsuspecting victims and use them for filling up slave mines and other areas of exploitation. I felt my fists clench when I learned this. This man would pay.

With a thought to the collective I set a course to Spatial Grid 538. I also ordered Cubes 04294 and 07945 to follow me. As my ship and the Cubes entered into transwarp, our ships' cloaking fields were activated. It would take us five minutes and twenty four seconds to reach Spatial Grid 538. While waiting I studied the holographic map of our target. The first thing I saw was the asteroid where my mother was killed. As I stared at the image I felt myself remembering and reliving what happen over those fateful three days. It was as if by staring at the image of the asteroid I could see inside it and, losing myself in my memories, I heard my mother's screams as Gresord and his men raped her over and over, whipping her whenever they stopped. My own cries joined with hers, and I didn't know whether they were real or in my head.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when the ship exited transwarp. Feeling a dampness in my hands, I saw I'd clenched my fists tight enough to draw blood, but the wounds were already healed. It was time now though; time to get the revenge that I once so desperately wanted but thought I would never get. But now, with the Borg collective, nothing would stop me from getting what I wanted. I would be getting my revenge, and hopefully with it I could put the memories of my past to rest.

A few moments later we were within transporter range of the planet. With a mental thought two Borg drones beamed down to the planet to find the locations of Chancellor Fresavfo and Gresord. The two drones were beamed into a rarely used, judging by the amount of dust my sensors detected, maintenance area where they could connect to the most secure computer systems on the planet. As I waited for the two drones to get me the needed information, I returned the audience chamber back to normal and started pacing in front of my chair. I felt like I was back waiting for Seven to announce the results of one of the tests I'd taken about Borg technology. The feeling was invigorating, but carried a certain amount of pain as I thought of the proud but kind woman who had been my last true friend before the Collective.

Within a minute the drones had hacked into the computer network using Borg deciphering algorithms and quickly found the location of Chancellor Fresavfo, and as luck would have it, he was sleeping at the time. As soon as I learned this I had the drones start rewriting the security system that protected the Chancellor. Three minutes later the scattering field that protected the Chancellor from illegal transport had been taken off-line. Their task finished, I redirected the drones to find the location of Gresord, which was difficult because all we knew of Gresord was his name.

I sat back in my chair, straightened a loose strand of hair and, with a mental nudge to the collective, Chancellor Fresavfo was beamed into my audience chamber. As soon as the Chancellor was completely rematerialized I raised my right hand and shot a modified Nano pellet at the Chancellor's chest. This would allow me to view his surface thoughts or, if I choose, to dig deeper into his memories.

The pain from the pellet breaking his skin woke Chancellor Fresavfo up quickly. At first he seemed blurry-eyed, but when he realized that he was in a strange place he quickly got up off of the floor and held his fists out as tough expecting a brawl. I was beginning to be able to read his surface thoughts through the collective, so I could tell that he was scared and taken aback at the room as to him it seemed dark and foreboding, then that he was surprised at seeing that his would be kidnapper was a little girl. I wanted to growl at his thoughts. I was not a weak little girl! I was powerful; I was the queen of the Borg! He would soon learn.

Chancellor Fresavfo finally worked up the courage to speak. "I am the Chancellor of the Praymor Order, and I demand to know why you kidnapped me and who you are!" He said, his voice still managing to seem confident in spite of his situation.

I answered in a soft voice. "I will answer your questions as soo… Ah, they have found him," I broke off. I turned my head to the right and a moment later Gresord was beamed into my audience chamber. I quickly shot a modified pellet at the man. Gresord did not seem to notice that he been hit, but he was now fully wake and very angry.

Gresord looked around and saw me and the Chancellor. "Where in the Galaxy am I and what's going on?" The slave master asked.

"Gresord, do you not recognize me? I'm hurt." I answered with fake pain in my voice. Right now I wanted nothing more than to strangle the man, but I knew I could do better.

Gresord turned his attention fully on to me and then yelled,"I have no clue who you are girl! What is going on?!"

"About four and half years ago, we meet on asteroid three, you bastard. There you asked me to recreate everything I knew about the Borg. I refused and you tortured and raped my mother till she died! **Now do you remember me**?!" I replied, my voice steadily rising until it was a near scream.

Gresord snarled. "You; because of you I almost lost everything! If it wasn't for a bit of inspiration that I had gotten from you, I would have been a ruined man. But now you will pay."

Gresord started running at me with the intent of planting his fist in my face. I smirked and raised my right hand, and with hardly a thought Gresord was blown fifteen meters backwards, hitting the metal floor very hard. A grunt of pain escaped his lips, and caused me to smirk. I replayed his last words in my mind and a rage came over me. Through the collective I brutally attacked his mind through his newly formed cortical node. I dug into his mind until I found what I was looking for. It seemed he had found another "useful" girl named Shaleena, who was about five years older then me. Shaleena had lived most of her life on a small ship; her parents where geneticists who specialized in genetic cloning. Shaleena's parents had been killed by the Praymor guards during an altercation at a transport tube, and she had been captured and enslaved. Shaleena's only teachers had been her parents, and she had been taught genetics since she was a young girl. Gresord had bought her and used her brilliant mind to make himself a rich man. I also got to witness some of the things he did to the girl and my hatred for Gresord grew. My fists clenched again and I felt myself tremble as I saw though his memories brutal tortures he had inflicted on her over the years to ensure her cooperation. Blood stained my vision, though it could have been his after one of the more severe beatings.

I withdrew from Gresord's mind sickened, and I ordered the Collective to retrieve Shaleena from Gresord's home. A few seconds later the young woman appeared in my chambers. Shaleena looked scared and rapidly glanced around at the unfamiliar surroundings. I noticed she was trembling, and a few freshly healed scars marred her shoulders. This only served to fan my anger at the slave master, but I forced my rage down. "Shaleena," I said in a soft voice, and she turned her attention to me. "No harm will come to you here, I promise. We have much in common, including one being." I pointed to Gresord, who was just getting up off of the floor and continued. "Gresord wanted me to give him Borg technology, but when I refused he took it out on my mother. After three days under Gresord's less then tender mercy my mother died in front of my eyes." I had to pause to stifle a sniffle before continuing. "Now I am here for my revenge, and you can sit back and watch it yourself." With a thought I had the collective add a chair next to mine. "Please sit down Shaleena," I invited.

Shaleena looked at me for a few seconds, then nodded and walked over to the chair I had provided for her and sat down. I turned my attention back to the Chancellor and Gresord, who seemed to finally be frightened of me. To them I had just performed acts of magic, with Gresord flying back in the air, Shaleena's sudden appearances and the chair appearing out of thin air. I was very glad that most races in the Delta Quadrant were at the level they were. My tricks wouldn't have had the effect they did if I'd done them before species from the Alpha Quadrant.

"You two are on a Borg ship," I said.

My three guests gasped and the Chancellor asked, "Who or what are you?"

"I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg. I am the Collective. I bring order to chaos. I am Naomi of Borg, the Queen of the Borg," I replied. I could feel the terror coursing through the Chancellor and Gresord. I loved the feeling it gave me. Finally these two where going to pay for their crimes.

"Gresord, I suppose I should thank you. If it had not been for what you did to me, I wouldn't be where I am today. Your desire to learn Borg technology started me on the path to be coming the Borg queen. Oh the irony, that you created the very thing that will bring your downfall. Today this ship was completed and I needed to do a real life test to see how this ship would fair in a battle, so I sat in this chair thinking who or what I could test it against. Eventually the images that came to me led to the death of my mother. At that point I knew who the target would be. Now, let's all sit back and watch this ship in action together," I smiled.

With a thought a holographic image of the planet below appeared. A few ships could be seen patrolling in orbit. With a thought I sent a wideband message to every receiver in the system. "I am Naomi of Borg, Queen of the Borg. You will lower your shields and surrender. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." I then gave the collective permission to begin the attack. As we were decloaking, my ship and the two cubes moved to surround the planet, forming a triangle in orbit to make sure no one escaped. My ship began launching atmospheric torpedoes immediately, each of which was loaded with over thirty trillion Nano probes. The other cubes would only prevent ships from leaving the planet, nothing more.

Within a minute of our attack the Praymor ships where converging on my ships location; far too long a response time in my opinion. As soon as they entered range they opened fire, their weapons doing no damage to my vessel, and I smiled as my inventions proved their worth. As the phaser fire and torpedoes hit the shields, the energy of the attacks was simply absorbed in our shields, making them stronger.

"I have just developed a power enhancing technology," I explained to my audience. "In fact, you two are standing right above the core. That pulsing green light under your feet comes from the reactor below." I smiled as my guests backed away from the glow beneath them. "This power enhancing technology allows me to implement a tri-layer shield grid and, as you can see, the tri-layer system is very efficient. None of the Praymor's attacks have done any damage to this ship. In fact they are only making this ship stronger."

I enjoyed watching the look of pure shock and horror on the faces of the Chancellor and Gresord as they realized that their only hope of rescue had been crushed. My ship's cutting beams had already disabled most of the attacking ships, and they were now being boarded by drones to be assimilated.

"It seems we have assimilated enough of your planet's systems to be able to tap into the surveillance network. Now we can watch the assimilation of your people up close," I said with a dark smile. With a thought the holographic image of the planet disappeared, and a sphere appeared around all of us. The sphere displayed hundreds of moving images showing people falling to the ground and being assimilated. From other video feeds I could see my atmospheric torpedoes exploding high in the air. I found it to be a truly beautiful and amazing sight.

With my ship firing off fourteen torpedoes every one point four seconds, it had only taken twenty two minutes and fifty five seconds to assimilate a planet with a population of eight point two billion. My ship had performed perfectly, crushing the Praymor with total ease. Cubes 04294 and 07945 stopped a few runaway ships and sent drones to the ships that had been disabled by my ship, but other then that they simply stood by and did nothing. My new ship and toy was truly something to be feared. I turned my attentions back to my guessts and with a thought the video sphere disappeared and the room returned back to normal.

"Now that your planet has been assimilated, we can get down to business," I said in a very authoritative tone. "It is time you learn your punishment for your crimes against Shaleena and I, and the countless others that suffered under your people. I have been learning of many more of your crimes through the assimilation of your people, and I am completely disgusted by what I have seen, so I feel completely justified in punishing you two. From this day forth, you will live the rest of your lives down on the planet, doing whatever the collective commands you do. If you resist, you will be punished with your newly formed slave implants which have been created by my Nanoprobes." I smiled as Grosard's hands immediately went to his neck. "You will not be allowed to escape or to try and harm yourselves. The collective will always know what you are thinking, so there is no hiding and no escape."

I turned to Shaleena and asked, "Is there anything you would like to say to these two before I beam them to the opposite sides of the planet?"

Shaleena looked to have been in complete shock since the assimilation of the Preymor had begun, but with my question a hardened look appeared on her pretty face and she nodded. Shaleena got out of her chair and walked in front of the Chancellor and said in a firm voice, "I hope in death that your spirits will be destroyed by the abyss of nothingness where you will never find peace." Shaleena walked up to Gresord and I saw her take a deep breath to steady herself. "My hate for you is internal; I hate you with ever fiber of my being." With shocking speed for a girl of Shaleena's size she punched Gresord with all of her might and hate in the stomach. Gresord fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Shaleena looked at me and then nodded.

"May you find nothing but misery in your remaining days. Goodbye," I said simply, and with a thought the two disappeared in a transporter beam.

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A/N: First I must again thank my beta Entilza who truly made this chapter great. This is my best chapter so far or at least I think so. So please tell me what you think of do like Shaleena she becomes a very important charter in my fic. Who personality is very dark but very devoted to Naomi.

I like to also thank slarneth and quantumsilver for be such a loyal reviewers. Thank you

Anyway please review!

Damien


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

I stood staring into space when a light touch on my shoulder snapped me out of my reverie. I turned around and saw Shaleena staring up at me, a hand placed experimentally on my left shoulder.

"What are you going to do to me?" Shaleena asked in a timid voice. "Are you going to assimilate me? If so, I just want to say thank you for letting me watch you in getting your revenge." Shaleena then bowed her head to me.

"Shaleena please follow me," I said. I led Shaleena to my bedroom, which was less intimidating than my main chamber. There were three grey couches facing the large view port which looked out on the stars. Currently I had the room showing the planet below. I motioned for Shaleena to sit down. I could see the confusion on her face, so I started to speak. "Shaleena, I saw Gresord's thoughts of you when I probed his mind, and I know from his memories that you are a genius when it comes to the field of bioengineering. I want you to join the collective, not as a drone, but as an individual."

Shaleena looked at me oddly and said nothing for a moment. "I thought that there are no individuals in the Borg collective, well other then you, the queen, isn't that right?" She asked.

"That was true, until now," I answered. "You could say I am a different kind of queen then the ones who came before me. I was chosen for my imagination because it is the one thing the collective never possessed, at least until I was selected to be the next queen," I smiled, remembering the first time I'd heard the former queen. "For you see the collective is very efficient at adapting technology it already possesses, but on the other hand the Borg have never been able to create a brand new technology, only assimilate it. This deficiency has almost led the collective to extinction on multiple occasions. Since I became the Borg queen I have come up with many different ideas and technologies. This ship is a prime example of what I invented. But my talents lay in mechanical machines, computer programming and energy based science, not in genetics or biology."

"You want me to become a researcher for the Borg, for you?" Shaleena asked.

"Yes, that is correct," I replied. "The Borg collective has another deficiency; it can only reproduce through the assimilation of others. If you agree to work with us, your primary objective would be to solve this deficiency through cloning. Think about it, you will have access to all the resources and materials you would ever need, and the knowledge of the collective would be yours. The collective has knowledge from thousands of different species and thousands of years of research and development. You would never lack for, or go without, anything ever again."

Shaleena sat there for a minute, studying me. I knew she was thinking about what I had just told her. "There is nothing else you want from me, which you may be hiding from me?" She asked finally.

"There is one more thing I wish from you," I said quietly, "your friendship. You remind me so much of myself. We grew up in similar ways. We both had suffered through our short lives. For all my life I never had friends my own age, at first because there were none and later because I was so much different then other children."

"If I say no, what will happen to me? Will you assimilate me?" Shaleena asked, still very calm.

I looked at Shaleena with a bit of sadness, and a small pain hit my heart. "No, I don't think I could do that to you. If you say no I will give you one of the disabled Praymor ships. Perhaps you could find your people again, maybe even survivors from your family. I only want you to join me if that is truly your wish," I said.

Shaleena smiled, and the pain in my heart vanished. "About a year ago, when Gresord raped me for not completing a project in time, I told myself that I would allow my soul to be destroyed by the Abyss of Nothingness and forgotten if Gresord was made to pay for what he did to me. You more than made that wish come true. You completely and utterly destroyed the Praymor Order, and made both Gresord and the Chancellor pay for their actions. That means I am yours; I will join you and do everything in my power to help you."

I felt a tear run down my face, and before I knew what I was doing I got up and enveloped Shaleena in a hug. "When you are Borg you will never truly die, you will never be forgotten and you will never be alone," I whispered in her ear. I felt Shaleena grab me and she started crying, letting the pain she been bottling up for over three years out. I simply held Shaleena and let her release her feelings into me. As I held her, I knew in that instant I had found someone I could truly call a friend, something I'd not known since Seven had embraced me that final day back on Earth. I finally felt complete.

It took Shaleena five minutes before she stopped crying. "I had not allowed myself to cry since I was captured by the Praymor Order. I did not want to give them the pleasure of seeing me in pain. Thank you," she whispered to me, sniffling. I hugged her tighter, and at that moment if I could have, I would have destroyed the Praymor Order all over again.

Shaleena broke away from me and asked, "What happens now?"

"Your rebirth is what is going to happen," I replied. "I will inject you with Nano Probes which will make you fall asleep, and when you reawaken you will have a new body, a new life and a new beginning. You just have to tell me when you are ready."

Shaleena looked me in my eyes and I saw a great confidence in her. "I am ready," she said.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, reprogramming some of my Nano Probes. I opened my eyes again and touched Shaleena's face with my left hand, distracting her. In a flash I raised my right hand and ejected her with my tubules. I heard a gasp come from her lips, but the Nano Probes where working quickly, her eyes where getting heavy and soon she slumped in my arms, asleep. With a quick thought to the collective two drones left their alcoves in the shadows of my audience chamber and walked into my bedroom. The drones picked up Shaleena and took her to an assimilation chamber.

I decided to wait in my own chambers for Shaleena's rebirth. Her body would be reconstructed in a way similar to my own rebirth, but with a few minor differences. I also decided that I should leave this system and return back to spatial grid 403, our temporary base of operations. The collective heard my thoughts and within a few seconds my Diamond ship was entering transwarp.

I tried to sit back in my chair and relax or to get some work done, but I was unable to concentrate on my research. My mind kept wondering about Shaleena. It was irrational to be worried about her of course, the collective knew what it was doing, but I could not help myself, I was worried. I could feel that the collective was trying to reassure me, but the slightly nauseous feeling in my stomach refused to go away.

It took twenty two minutes to complete Shaleena's re-creation. I had the collective beam Shaleena and me into my old quarters aboard construction platform 001. I arrived in my old bedroom and saw that Shaleena was still asleep. I knew all I would have to do was give the collective a mental nudge and she would be awoken.

I took a close look at Shaleena and saw that she now had long wavy hair that went to below her shoulders. Her reddish skin had lost much of its color, and she was now almost as pale as I was. She was wearing an armor suit like mine, but hers was silver, not black. Her right hand also had the same latticework implant that I had. Other then her hand there were no visible implants that could be seen on her body. I smiled to myself; Shaleena looked beautiful, and I hoped she would agree with me. I decided that it was time to wake Shaleena up, and with a thought her eyes started blinking open and she slowly sat up in her bed. She quickly spotted me and stretched. "I feel different; stronger, healthier and powerful. I like this feeling." Then she looked distracted. She closed her eyes for a second and asked, "The voices I am hearing, is that the collective?"

"Yes, a small part of the collective," I answered. "Your connection to the collective is different from mine though. I am connected to the entire collective, making us one. You are only connected to the drones that are near you."

"That would make sense as you are the queen and I am only a researcher," Shaleena said while trying to look herself over

"Shaleena, I will let you look at yourself through my eyes, so follow my thoughts," I said in her mind. I could feel Shaleena's presence enter my mind and I guided her thoughts to what I saw. I knew the moment Shaleena had seen herself from the gasp I heard and the surprise I felt from her thoughts.

"I look different; my skin is a lot like yours," Shaleena said. "I look pretty, in a strange way. This is not what I pictured; I thought I would end up looking like a half machine. Thank you Naomi," she smiled broadly. "Thank you for everything you've done for me."

"Thanks are not necessary Shaleena, but now it is time for you to regenerate," I replied. "Your implants are running at minimal power right now, and it will take about twelve days of regeneration for you to be at full power. Now then, these rooms were mine before my ship was built. They are now yours to do with as you please. The bed is your alcove; you simply lie down, close your eyes and the regeneration process will begin automatically."

"I do feel a bit sleepy," Shaleena said while climbing into the bed. "I also knew that I was in great need of regeneration as soon as I regained conciousness."

Before Shaleena's eyes had closed I pulled the covers up to her neck. "Good night, Shaleena of Borg," I whispered. "Sleep well." Once Shaleena's eyes had closed I heard the building hum of the hidden power transfer module. Soon it leveled out to a soothing hum that you could easily fall asleep too. I decided that I too needed to regenerate, and with a thought I was beamed into my new bedroom. I walked over to my bed and lay down and closed my eyes.

Within a few seconds I found myself in the black void. The former queen appeared and smiled. "My my, have we not had a busy a day. I must say your ship is truly an object to behold, an object of power and of perfection. Species 753, while not a truly advanced race, still had an armada of ships that would have inflicted minor damage to any single Borg vessel. Not a single shot got through your shields. You are truly a brilliant individual."

"While I thank you for the praise you have given me, I have a feeling that was not why you brought me here," I said.

The former queen smiled and answered. "You are correct, as usual. The purpose of my visit to your mind is about Shaleena, your new bio researcher."

"You don't approve of letting Shaleena be an individual, to let her help the collective grow?" I asked.

The former queen shook her head. "That isn't it, not at all. I myself tried using individuals to better the collective, but unlike your attempt they were all resounding failures. I like Shaleena; she reminds me a lot of you. However I feel that a few safety measures should be implemented which will insure that you are never betrayed like I have been.

"What are these safety measures that you are proposing?" I asked.

"Just a small modification to Shaleena's implants that will insure she does not have any traitorous thoughts, or if she tries to harm you or the collective she would be disabled," the former queen replied.

I thought about the former queen's proposal and thought about Shaleena. She would never betray me, so I knew no harm could come from this. "Very well," I said, and instantly I felt the collective move to carry out my will.

"What are you going to do next?" The echo of the former leader of the collective asked.

"The collective needs to grow and expand before we can retake our space and build a new Unimatrix. So while the collective rebuilds, I am planning on stealing _Voyager_. Voyager's data files and the armaments she now has will help the collective grow considerably," I answered.

"I am sure you will be successful, for you have yet to fail at anything you put your mind to. Now then, I will bid you a goodnight, Naomi of Borg," the Queen said, embracing me like she always did. With her last words my higher brain functions shut down.

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A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. I want to let you know you my readers know that I had added pictures that relate to my fic in my yahoo group. I have already posted a very nice picture of the Queen diamond ship which I think is very nice and quote from Naomi before she became the Borg queen. You will find the link to my group on my profile page just click my homepage it will take you to my group's page. 

Anyway please review!

Damien


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Eight hours later my regeneration cycle ended. I got out of bed and headed to my audience chamber. I needed to set a few directives for the collective, for there were a number of species I wish to be assimilated. We needed to grow some more before I had the collective start reconstructing Unimatrix Zero-One. I sat down in my chair and had the holographic image of the galaxy brought up.

It took me over twenty minutes to review and decide which species would be assimilated over the next two weeks. I needed to complete this task so I could focus on creating a plan to get Voyager. Now that it was done it was time for me to develop a plan. I had the collective start transferring the latest information on the security around Earth. I decided not to go for an all out assault on Earth, at least not yet.

My idea was to use a decoy ship that would not raise attention. I started going through the knowledge that had been transferring into me, looking for the most unassuming and least suspected ship I could find. After a bit of searching I thought I found the perfect ship, a Bajoran transport/freighter. Since the Dominion war the Bajorans were trusted by Starfleet. If it had not been for Starfleet they would been under Dominion control, because of this the Bajorans were truly grateful. It also helped that Earth was the home of the current Emissary. I would use this trust to my advantage.

I started to come up with the design for the Bajoran ship. I had two aspects to cover, authenticity and usefulness, meaning deciding what tools and technology I could add without it being apparent that there was something going on. Two hours later I was working on the auto-destruct device went I was notified by the collective that Shaleena's regeneration cycle had just ended.

I sent a message to her though my link to the collective "Good morning Shaleena, I hope you are well rested. I am in my audience chamber right now. You can have the collective beam you here or if you prefer to, you could walk here."

"I think I will walk today, I seem to know where I am going and I would like to see more of the Borg collective," Shaleena send back.

"That is fine with me, but I should warn you the collective is not known for their decorative skills, after all such things are irrelevant." I heard her laughter and I smiled to myself. I set back to work until Shaleena arrived.

About ten minutes later Shaleena arrived in my audience chamber. I looked up from the computer terminal I was working on and smiled at her.

"You are right Naomi, the collective does lack a certain bit of aesthetics," Shaleena said.

"Indeed, while that is true, what the collective lacks in aesthetics they make it up with sheer ability. I will show you my lab now. For the time being you will do your research here until Unimatrix Zero-One is rebuilt."

As I led Shaleena to my lab I continued speaking. "You should find everything you need in here, and if something's missing you can easily recreate it. Do not be afraid to ask the collective for help. I think that you will find that we are most eager to help you accomplish your tasks. Right now your only assignment is to create an efficient means for the collective to expand using cloning technology. If you see another project or idea you wish to accomplish in the future you are of course free to do so, but cloning must remain central. If I did not follow this rule myself we would not be on this ship, or at least not one this powerful," I smiled. I spent a half hour with Shaleena, giving her a tour of my lab and explaining to her a variety of different topics.

Once I was done giving Shaleena the grand tour of the lab, I went back to my audience chamber and got to work. While I was giving Shaleena the tour of my lab an idea had suddenly hit me. I could implant a Trojan into Starfleet's computer system, which would allow me to spy and keep tabs on them. It would take a quite of bit of careful planning to be able to pull this off without getting caught. I was not worried about the consequences of Starfleet finding out, other then losing a good source of information. The information we could gain could be invaluable, so the Trojan had to be perfect.

I spent the entire day learning all of the ins and outs of Starfleet's computer systems, looking for the best and most well hidden security flaw that I could find. It would probably take me another few days to find the hole I was looking for. Starfleet's computer system was a very well thought out and written program, but I remembered Voyager's computer system was even better thanks to upgrades that B'Elanna, Seven and Harry made over the years, so I had a good place to start from.

I checked with the collective to see what time it was and found that in an hour Shaleena would need to regenerate. I got up out of my chair stiffly and at the same time made a request to the collective to add a dinning table for two in the middle of the room and have a meal replicated. I walked into the lab and found Shaleena bent over the holographic table, examining different DNA strands.

"Shaleena, put your work down, it will be here tomorrow. Come let's have dinner together," I smiled. Shaleena frowned for a second then looked at me and returned my grin.

"I thought that I did not need to consume food anymore," Shaleena said, placing the tools she had been using into a neat row and engaging a sterilization field.

"True, we do not need to consume nutrients, but that does not mean we can't," I replied. "Now come on, let's eat." Shaleena followed me out of the lab and into the modified audience room where two place settings where waiting for us. I motioned for Shaleena to take the opposite seat and we sat down. Two drones came forward, each serving us a steaming plate of food which was one of Neelix's recipes that I loved, Shadre Kab.

As I picked up a utensil and eat I said, "I've decided that we should do this every day; sit down and have a meal together. That way we will always see each other, share ideas and just get to know each other better. We **are** the only individuals in the collective, and this will help prevent us from going crazy from the lack of a social life."

"I think it is a good idea, I do admit I get wrapped up in my work and I lose myself in it. Now that I am doing this work willingly for you, I enjoy it that much more" Shaleena smiled warmly. "Today I only started learning everything the collective knows about genetics. It is light years ahead of what I know, and the computer systems are so much more powerful then I am used to, and they react to my thoughts instantly."

"Yes, the collective's knowledge is truly extensive and it may take you a while to learn it all, even with nightly data transfers. I don't expect you to have results tomorrow; the living body is much more complex then any computer program or technology. So take your time, you will get there in time," I said. The rest of the meal was spent talking. We talked about my plan in stealing Voyager and about Shaleena's research. After dinner I wished Shaleena a good night.

…

The last four days had been extremely busy. I had finally found the security hole that I was searching for. I needed a way to retrieve relevant data and transmit it without the Federation ever finding out. But one could not simply transmit restricted data on any communications system. The Federation had come up with an ingénues way of preventing this type of security flaw. All sensitive information had extra data added to the data record. When this extra data was sent through a non-secure communication system, the data would be misread, which resulted in a nonsensical transmission. What really made this system so amazing was if you created a program to remove the extra data the information would become unreadable. This happened because the extra information was a cipher, so when any data was secured it was automatically encrypted with a totally random encryption system, and the extra data was both a decipher key and a computer virus of sorts. Even if a person decided to strip the extra data and try deciphering later, they have to do this to each and every file, for the encryption would always change. This security method was developed by a Vulcan.

I found the perfect way to send data out on a secure channel. You could not use any secure channel to send the data, for those channels were closely monitored and at Earth, and so were even more secure then anywhere else. My method would be to use the Earth's weather control system. The weather control system was a controlled system which was able to send out secure information. There were three orbital arrays around the sun that kept track of solar flares, but hardly anyone knew that the solar orbital arrays were a part of the weather control system, which would allow me to piggy back my transmissions on a solar flare. Solar flares caused a rippling effect in space which would travel a long distance, or at least long enough to reach one of the collective's hidden communication arrays. To facilitate my plan I had written an evolving computer Trojan which would adapt to different situations to remain hidden. I did this using a specially designed set of Nano Probes.

Now I would need to plan exactly how I was going to break into the Federation's mainframe room without Starfleet ever knowing, and of course how to get a hold of Voyager. What I needed was a devise that would hide both my bio signature and my physical body. I made a query to the collective to see if the collective possessed such a technology, and within two minutes I found more then I was looking for; I found something that could improve every single Borg drone.

Species 2374, who called them selves the Srivani possessed interphasic cloaking device technology. A number of different species had experimented with this type of technology, including the Federation. Species 2374 were the true masters of this technology however, having a version so small it could be used on a person. The device would both make an object or person invisible and intangible. For purposes of my mission to implant my Trojan this device would be perfect for keeping me hidden from the mainframe's security system, and it would solve another problem, getting into the room without being detected. I could simply walk through the walls.

I pictured in my mind of every drone in the collective having one of these interphasic cloaking device implanted in there bodies. They could become invisible and walk through most physical objects. The damage a single drone could do to an enemy ship was a pleasing thought. When I was done with my mission I would have to create a means to be able detect this type of cloak. I wanted the collective to know a counter to every technology that we employed or could be used against us.

I decided to have Shaleena help me create this new implant, her knowledge of biology would help in finding the most safe and effective place to plant the bio implant. She would also be able to detect any negative side effects and hopefully be able to counteract it. It seemed I had lot more work ahead of me, but I could tell I was getting closer to my goal, and I was certain I would succeed.

* * *

A/N: I like to thank Blake Wilson for his very nice review and all of the others. Sorry for not updating for while. My beta was taking his finals whish him luck. Any way thanks for reading.

I also posted a PDF version on my yahoo groups. The PDF has few images including a very large one of Naomi's Diamond. You can get to my group from my bio page, from there clock the my homepage link. If you have any images for this story, drawn or captured sent it to me and I add to a later PDF version probably Ch15 or Ch20.

Anyway please review!

Damien


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

It had taken Shaleena and me three days to create the new Bio-Implant. Twelve drones had been permanently damage beyond repair and had had to be terminated. While I did not like to do this to my drones, it had to be done. We had to overcome a few different problems in the creation of this new implant. A few of the problems we had encountered were that the interphase cloaking field did not form properly because the devise was not worn on the exterior of the body. This had led to a few nasty, and in one case very messy, accidents. Once we solved that problem we found that the interphase cloaking field did not always phase the Borg implants out of the space-time continuum the same way it did to the biological body; it was this problem that we had the hardest time correcting.

Shaleena and I were having our nightly meal, and my thoughts had drifted away from the meal to Species 426, who were known as the Krenim. The Krenim's Chroniton torpedo technology was similar in function to how interphase cloaking pushed an object out of the space-time continuum. I would of course have to adapt our torpedoes with interphase cloaking. The torpedo would be invisible and intangible until it was time for it to return to normal space to explode, making an enemy's shields and armor irrelevant.

"Naomi," Shaleena called, which snapped me out of my thoughts. "I can tell from the view port in my chambers that the Bajoran decoy ship is ready. When are you planning to go?"

"Tomorrow after my regeneration cycle," I answered.

"Very well then, I will meet you at the ship first thing tomorrow."

I shook my head at Shaleena's statement. "I am sorry Shaleena, but you are not coming with me tomorrow."

Shaleena frowned at me and replied. "Who is going to look after your back? You are risking getting caught alone in the heart of the Federation. Who knows what could happen."

I smiled at Shaleena. She was sort of cute when she was worried. "That is why you will be commanding my Diamond. If anything happens you can come and get me. This ship is the most powerful vessel in the collective right now, so everything should be fine. I will also have twenty drones with me so there is no need to worry so."

"Very well, but I am going to have a few cubes standing by, just in case. If anything happens I want to have overwhelming fire power to pull you out of there," Shaleena said very seriously.

I flashed Shaleena another smile. "Very well then, but now it is time for us to regenerate. Good night Shaleena."

"Good night Naomi," my friend replied, and stood up to disappear in a green transporter beam. I got up out of my own chair and went to my bedroom, laid down and fell asleep to the hum of my alcove bed.

…

The following morning I was sitting in a chair, having my face altered by Shaleena to add creases across my nose and extra skin on my forehead to hide my small spikes. Once that was done, for the first time as the Borg Queen I removed my armor and put on a Bajoran dress, which was more revealing then my normal attire. The dress was made of a fine blue material that showed off my bare arms and came down to just above the knee. Because of this Shaleena had been forced to alter my skin pigmentation a bit so I did not look so pale. Finally I clipped an earring to my right ear. I did a little spin in front of Shaleena. At the same time I looked through her eyes at myself and asked, "How do I look? Do I look natural and not Borg like?"

"Naomi, you are attractive in whatever form you take, but to answer your question you look good and defiantly not like a Borg. Perhaps we should redesign your armor. I really like that dress," Shaleena complimented.

"I think you are right, I do look nice," I replied. "Perhaps we will take your idea under consideration, but right now it's time for me to go. The diamond is yours until I get back. You know what you need to do."

As I turned away from her and was getting ready to have the collective beam abort the decoy ship, Shaleena grabbed me in a nearly bone crushing hug. "Return to me Naomi, you hear me?" She said in a pained voice.

I hugged her back. "I will Shaleena, I will." It had amazed me how close Shaleena and I grown in such a short time. She was becoming something of a sister to me. I let go of Shaleena and was beamed aboard the Bajoran decoy ship. The drones on the bridge of the Bajoran decoy ship were ones that had been assimilated after I had become the queen. Therefore they looked natural, without any visible Borg implants. The collective had already modified the five bridge drones' bodies to look Bajoran. The other drones were a cross of new and old drones, however even the new drones still looked like a Borg drone, having a cybernetic arm and eye. These drones would remain hidden until I needed them. I sat down in the captain's chair and with a thought my diamond opened a transwarp aperture which would take me to a remote region in Spatial Grid 324. My diamond would maintain the conduit until I made it to Spatial Grid 324, which would take three days. This was possible thanks to my Diamond's large power system. I had decided not to install a transwarp drive on this ship to make it seem more authentic. It would not due well if the Federation scanners found that a Bajoran transport had a Borg transwarp drive.

…

I spent the next three days in transwarp, designing an interphase cloak targeting system for a torpedo. When I was done with my mission, I would have the collective implement my newly designed torpedo across the Borg armada. Once the ship had exited the Transwarp aperture it took us another six hours at warp seven to get to Earth.

As we dropped out of warp and where approaching Earth, we were hailed. With a thought one of my drones activated the view screen. On the view screen I saw a middle aged man with graying hair and a beard. "My name is Commander Peterson, please state the reason for your visit."

"I am Rald Tiasha, and we are here to see the Emissary's home world," I replied, giving the man an eager smile. I almost felt like a child asking permission to go to a friend's house.

"Not to be rude, but aren't you a little young to be the captain of that ship?" Commander Peterson asked.

I hoped my cover story would work. "This is my father's ship, and he allowed me to use it for an educational and spiritual trip. Are we cleared to dock at Starbase one?" I asked in my best innocent voice. If things fell apart now my chances for survival were fairly low if any of the Borg technology on my ship, or the drones themselves, was detected.

"Yes Ms. Rald, I am sending you the docking procedures now. I hope you enjoy your time on Earth. Commander Peterson out."

I smiled to myself. It seemed my snotty daddy girl act had worked. With a thought my drones followed Commander Peterson's instructions. I could not help looking at the blue planet as we closed on the starbase. This was the place that had caused me so much pain and suffering. This was where my hopes and dreams had died, the place where Seven had died and where Naomi Wildman had fallen. I felt a few tears running down my face, and my hatred well up inside of. For a brief moment I was tempted to contact Shaleena and have her bring a fleet of Borg ships. No, I decided, it was not time, not yet, but someday it would be.

Within ten minutes we were docked at docking station 4381. It was almost time to get my old home back, but first I had a Trojan to plant. I commanded one of my drones through my link to the collective to beam me down at the visitor's entrance at Starfleet Headquarters.

A moment later I found my self in front of the large administration building. I quickly got my bearings and started walking down a side path that was very green and lush. Trees shaded me and I heard several birds chirping to each other. Closing my eyes for a moment, I saw myself walking these same paths with Seven. We had just beamed down from Voyager and exploring the sights neither of us had laid eyes on before. "This is beautiful," I had said, "don't you think so?"

"It is pleasant," Seven had answered, which was her way of saying she agreed with me. I'd hugged her then, feeling the happiest I'd ever been.

When I opened my eyes I found I was standing underneath the very same tree where Seven and I had embraced. The sadness I had suppressed threatened to overwhelm me, but with an effort I forced it down. I had a mission to complete.

A few minutes later I was sitting on a bench, waiting for the right moment to activate my new cloaking implant. Once I saw no one looking and my internal scanners did not detect anyone near by I activated the implant, and less then a second later I was invisible.

When I walked through the first wall I thought that I would feel a strange sensation, but that was not the case. I felt nothing at all, almost like nothing was there. I saw many different Starfleet officers, none of whom paid me any mind. No alarms where raised, and things where going as planned. It took me over ten minutes to make it to the secured mainframe room. My luck was holding, there was no one in the room aside from me.

I walked over to the computer core and took off a side panel, placing it on the ground. I then allowed my tubules to return to the normal space-time continuum and ejected them into the primary computer circuits. The pre-programmed Nano Probes where ejected into the system and quickly got to work making the necessary modifications, planting the Trojan and reconfiguring the solar arrays to start transmitting the stolen information on the back of a solar flare. I replaced the panel, had my tubicles re-cloak and sent a command to a waiting drone who would beam down and start hacking a network junction.

It took me another ten minutes to return back to the out of the way bench. I would remain cloaked until the drone who was hacking the network junction was ready to beam me aboard Voyager using the ship's own transporter system. A few minutes later I was informed through my link to the collective that the drone was successful in implanting my prerecorded message to the Federation counsel as well as a virus that would disrupt all communication systems for a few minutes. A link to Voyager's computer system was made using Seven of Nine's command codes; mine were not at a sufficient level to activate Voyager's transporters.

The drone in the sub network junction then beamed the nineteen drones that where still abort the decoy ship onto Voyager. Voyager's transporter was able to bypass the security screen protecting the ship. Then, using my connection to the collective, I was able to perfectly time when I would let down the cloak and when the beam would be activated. A few seconds later I saw my view of the ground of Starfleet disappear.

* * *

A/N: Sorry about taking so long to update I have been busy with my new job, also my beta was bit busy in giving me ch12 which I think you will all like. Please review and tell me what you think I like to read them. 

Again please review!

Damien


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I found myself on the bridge of _Voyager_, and I saw three drones on the bridge, each at a separate station; the helm, ops and tactical. I was home again, but somehow it did not feel right to me. I sat down in the captain's chair and sent a thought to my drones to start installing the transwarp coils we had brought along. I opened the computer consol next to my chair and ejected it with my tubules to create a mental interface with the console.

As I turned my attention to the newly formed link between _Voyager's_ computer system and the collective I found that the alarms on the orbital construction platform that _Voyager_ was docked in had been set off. But it seemed that the virus that I had had my drone place in the system was working properly. No one who was not on the platform knew of our presence.

The drone in the network junction was beamed aboard the decoy ship. He would use the decoy ship as a distraction if need be; if not he would cause the ship to self-destruct. Sensing an intrusion, I found through_Voyager's_ internal sensors that six Federation officers had come aboard; four of them were heading to main engineering and the other two were going to the bridge. I commanded the four drones in engineering to cloak themselves and assimilate the four officers. I had the drone at ops cloak herself and stand by the turbo lift doors.

I watched through my link to the collective as the four Federation officers made their way to the door outside of main engineering. In a flash the four cloaked drones uncloaked as soon as the doors opened and stuck their tubules into the necks of the four Federation officers. Within a few minutes I would have four new drones. A few modifications would need to be made to them, but the collective would deal with that later. I could not help myself, I smiled. The new cloaking implant was very useful indeed.

I turned my attention back to myself on the bridge and forty seconds later the turbo lift opened up and I saw Admiral Janeway and an unknown Lieutenant emerge. As soon as the two walked forward the unknown Lieutenant was stuck in the neck with tubules and fell to the ground. Admiral Janeway turned around and saw her comrade fell to the floor. The drone was about to assimilate Janeway when I gave a mental order to the female drone to return to the ops station.

Admiral Janeway raised her phaser and about to fire when to her surprise the drone walked over to ops. Admiral Janeway wearily turned around and looked at me. Upon seeing me she gasped. "No, it can't be; the Borg have gotten you Naomi?" I could see her shoulders almost slump, but then she straitened herself. "I will get you out of this Naomi, somehow I will."

"That will not be necessary Admiral. For you see I am quite happy with being Borg," I replied, smiling at the Admiral.

Admiral Janeway had a look of confusion cross her face and said, "Naomi Wildman, is that you, I mean the real you, still an individual?"

"In a matter of speaking," I answered, "but I am no longer Naomi Wildman. I am Naomi of Borg, the Queen of the Borg. Naomi Wildman died when the Federation killed Seven of Nine out of ignorance and fear."

I saw Admiral Janeway's face show shock, which changed to a look of horror, and then she asked, "Why? Why would you betray who you are, your people and the Federation?"

"Growing up aboard this ship, I was taught to be honest, kind, helpful and to always make decisions not out of fear, but with facts and with your heart. To always be honorable. I looked up to you. You showed the crew these qualities and more, saying this was what the Federation represented. But I found that to be a lie; these were your qualities, nothing like the Federation's. The Federation that I saw was self-serving, manipulative, rash and fearful," I replied.

Admiral Janeway shook her head. "No Naomi that is what you think you saw but…"

I cut Admiral Janeway off and continued. "The Federation has laws against locking someone up with out a fair hearing, yet they locked me up, a thirteen year old girl in solitary confinement!" I yelled, feeling the pain of my days incarcerated come back to me. I fought back tears. "I watched as three Federation officers killed Seven of Nine out of fear! Seven was going to destroy the Borg and herself! She was willing to sacrifice her own life for the Federation, a Federation that did not deserve Seven's loyalty!"

By this time I had lost the battle with my sadness, and I felt a few tears fall from my eyes before I continued. "When I felt Seven hit the ground dead, I died as well. I was all alone, with only my hatred for company. My heart had shattered. We were better off in the Delta Quadrant, where we were all a family. I was given an offer to never be alone again. I agreed and I have never regretted it. I have a new family a family now, one that can never be taken from me. I have access to knowledge that you can only dream of. I have already created things that would have taken me a lifetime to do in the Federation."

"You saw the faults in a war torn Federation," Admiral Janeway said, "but what about the Borg? How many lives have the Borg destroyed, how many cultures have they erased? Are you truly willing to become the embodiment of the Borg?"

"The Borg do not destroy, they rebuild, reshape and mold things into something that is greater. There is no famine, no fear, no war in the collective, just peace and unity. We bring perfection and order to the galaxy. So yes, I am willing to be the embodiment of these things," I replied.

I heard the collective tell me that the transwarp coils had been adapted to the ship. It was time to leave this place. "Admiral, I am afraid our discussion will have to be terminated. The transwarp drive is ready and I don't think you wish to return to the Delta Quadrant."

"I can't allow you to take _Voyager_," Admiral Janeway said, and raised her phaser rifle at me. With my enhanced reflexes I raised my right hand and used my tractor beam to rip the phaser out of Admiral Janeway's hands and into mine.

I saw the shock on Admiral Janeway's face. "Don't worry, I will take care of_Voyager_, after all she was just as much my home as she was yours. I was born here after all." With a thought to the collective Admiral Janeway was beamed off of _Voyager_ and back onto the platform. With another thought _Voyager_ disconnected the docking clamps and flew out of the construction platform in to open space.

Within a few seconds the _Enterprise-E_ was on an intercept course to our location. The decoy ship had already left Starbase one and flew right into the enterprise and initiated self-destruct, creating an explosion which disintegrated the rear half of the right nacelle. With a thought we went to warp, and a few seconds later we entered transwarp. No Federation ship would be able to catch us now.

I got up out of the captain's chair and went to my old quarters. I let the drones start downloading and learning Voyager's computer system; right now I just wanted to lie down on my bed. I thought I might be able to hear my mother's voice again.

A minute later I entered my quarters, and I closed my eyes for a moment as I took in the feeling and smells of a place I'd never thought to see again. Memories of the happiness I had experienced within these walls rushed through me, and I broke out in a wide smile. Concentrating, I could almost see my mother sitting at the table, her face lit up with a smile as she invited me to share her freshly made dinner. Another pair of tears made their way down my face as I instinctively reached out to embrace my mother, but before I could the half visible ghost vanished, and my questing hand found only an empty chair. "I won't forget you Mom, I promise," I said to myself, a piercing pain stabbing my heart as I felt the loss all over again. "You'll always be here, inside my heart," I whispered.

I fell asleep on my old bed. Three hours later I was woken by a loud voice in my head; it was Shaleena. I felt like groaning. I slowly got up, not feeling refreshed like normal. I had forgotten that my old bed was not an alcove. While my nap did help, my power systems had not been recharged.

I heard Shaleena's voice again. "Are you awake Naomi? Don't make me come over there and wake you; you are not even in an alcove!"

"I am awake Shaleena, what do you want?" I replied. Through my connection I found that my Diamond and three other cubes where beside _Voyager_, traveling at transwarp. I had the collective beam me to my audience chamber. I saw Shaleena sitting in my throne like chair, smiling at me. "I see you made your self at home," I said with a smirk.

Shaleena smiled even wider. "Just keeping it warm for you."

"How is it that you were so close to the Alpha Quadrant you were able to meet up with me in a matter of hours?" I asked.

"That is simple; I followed you in the decoy ship for over three-fourths of the trip. If anything happened to you I wanted to be able to get to you quickly. Aren't you happy to see me again?" Shaleena asked, sounding bit hurt, but through my link to the collective I knew she was joking.

"Of course I am happy to see you Shaleena. I was just a bit surprised to see you this soon, but I guess I should not have been," I replied.

Shaleena smiled at me again and continued. "You really look good in that dress. I will have to design a dress fit for a Borg Queen. Perhaps _Voyager's_ ablative armor will be the key in allowing you to have your armor when needed, yet still be able to show off the real Naomi. Did you know that the Federation Temporal Bureau of Investigations was going to confiscate and destroy the technology from the future?"

I shook my head at Shaleena's antics, and then a thought crossed my mind. "I assume my little Trojan is already transmitting data?" I asked.

Shaleena stood up, took my hand and led me to my bedroom. She took out a few tools and started to restore my face. "Oh yes, the Federation High Council had a big meeting about you. It seems you have caused quite a stir."

"I want to see this recording. After we are done here I will have my audience chamber recreate the meeting. It might be more interesting to watch it this way."

"There," Shaleena smiled, "I have returned all of your facial features back to normal. I am going to leave your skin pigmentation alone though. In a few days your skin will lose a bit of color, but you will still look like you have natural human skin with a slight tan. I'll leave you now so you can get dressed. Tonight I will choose something my mother used to make me. It is not as spicy as your godfather's food, but I think you will like it."

As Shaleena left my bedroom I got up and took off the Bajoran earring and placed it on a small table. As I was taking off the light Bajoran dress and putting on my armor, I thought to my self that it was good to be home. It seemed in the time since I had become the Borg Queen. I had indeed found a new home. At that moment I felt truly happy and content. The collective and Shaleena were my family now, and with those thoughts I left my bedroom.

* * *

A/N: I like to thank Sage of the Flux Mysteries and again quantumsilver. Quantumsilver sent me a review that O thought was very funny.

Quantumsilver wrote:" Ok, I just have one question: exactly how badly does a drone have to screw up to be put on waitstaff duty? Better yet, how bad a drone do you have to be to be relegated to "1 of 3, chef's assistant adjunct of unimatrix ..."?

Yeah, that was two questions, sorry, but I couldn't help myself. I love the idea of having Borg drones serving dinner, and I like the relationship Naomi is developing with Shaleena. It IS nice to see her have a friend her own age."

I must admit I never thought of it that way in fact I saw in my mind the collective very limit emotion that any drone would be pleased to serve the queen personal sort of speak. Any way my beta and I love the review.

Hope you keep enjoying the story and keep reviewing

Damien


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

As soon as I entered my audience chamber I found myself in what appeared to be a Federation meeting room. I saw that on one side of the large conference table were place settings for Shaleena and me. It seemed we would be eating at the same time we were watching the recreation of the Federation high council meeting when they received my message. The Federation high council was comprised of the Prime Minster, his cabinet and the highest officers in Starfleet. The high council dealt with day to day items and situations where there was not enough time to call together a general assembly.

Once two drones brought us our food I gave a mental command to start the play back. A second later the room that was empty except for me, Shaleena and the hidden drones. The room filled up with holographic images of the Federation high council and a few guests. The most notable guest was Captain Jean Luc Picard. A few seconds later the holographic characters unfroze. "As you see from the _Enterprise's_ scans," Picard began, "the Cardassians have begun to rebuild and are trying to take back control of this system. I feel as wit…"

Captain Picard was interrupted when his com badge beeped. "Picard here." Everyone in the room could hear the voice of Commander Riker. "Captain, we just received word that the starship _Voyager _has been taken out of dry-dock. Word so far indicates Borg." Every one in the room started murmuring to themselves. Commander Riker continued. "We were trying to give chase when a Bajoran transport blew up near our right nacelle and disabled us. We tracked _Voyager's_ movements until we lost contact, but we detected a Borg Transwarp aperture forming just as she vanished from sensors."

Unnoticed while this was going on was that the large view screen had changed from a map of a region of space near the Cardassian home world to an image of me in my Borg armor sitting in my audience chamber. I felt that I looked impressive sitting in my throne chair. I could see the two Borg banners to each side of me and if you looked at the bottom of the screen you could just make out the pulsing Borg symbol.

It was not until the message started playing that someone noticed and quickly silenced everyone in the room.

"Hello, my name is Naomi of Borg, Queen of the Borg," the recording of myself said. "Some of you might better know me as Naomi Wildman. As Naomi Wildman I looked up to the Federation and its values. I was taught from a very young age the supposed Federation values and beliefs. When _Voyager_ returned back to Earth, I found that everything that I was taught was a lie. The crew of _Voyager_ lived by these values alone in the Delta Quadrant. The things I was taught were not the principles of the Federation, but those of Captain Janeway and the crew of _Voyager_. One day three Federation officers killed the only member of my family I had left. I died and was reborn anew, with a new life of perfection. Just remember this; you helped shape and create who I am now. One day I will come back, and it won't be to steal a ship. A large part of the blame rests on the Federation's shoulders. I bid you farewell, until next time we meet."

As the message ended the double doors to the meeting room opened with a bang. Everyone turned to see a clearly upset Admiral Janeway enter, and a few seconds behind her were three security officers who rushed in to the room. A lieutenant, the highest ranking of the three security officers, spoke first. "I am sorry Prime Minster, but Admiral Janeway insisted she come in here."

The blue headed alien who was the Prime Minister nodded. "That is ok lieutenant. Admiral Janeway is just the person we needed to speak too. Please return to your post."

The lieutenant nodded and snapped to attention and he and the other two security officers walked out of the room, the double doors closing behind them. The Prime Minister gestured to an empty chair. "Admiral, please take a seat and tell us why you rushed in here so quickly. I'm guessing it has something to do with the Borg taking _Voyager_."

Admiral Janeway sat down in the offered chair. "You are correct Minister; _Voyager_ has been taken by the Borg, but it seems you already know of this."

Everyone nodded at Janeway's words and the Admiral continued. "I was aboard the platform when the alarms went off. At the time I tried to send a signal for support but quickly found out that was impossible. I gathered up as many officers as I could, all of whom were trained security officers. We were able to get abort _Voyager_, and at first I tried to use my voice commands to lock out _Voyager's_ systems, but the Borg had already taken over to many of the ship's computers for that to work."

Admiral Janeway paused for a second to take a drink of water and continued. "I sent four of the Security officers to try and cause a warp core overload. I and the last remaining security officer went to the bridge to try and take control of the situation. Once I made it to the bridge I saw only two Borg drones but a third somehow snuck up behind us and assimilated Lt. Jackson. I was getting ready to fire on the drone when it just moved away to the ops station. I quickly spun around to find Naomi Wildman sitting in the Captain's chair. At first I thought she was just another Borg drone, but to my horror I learned that she was not simply a Borg drone, she was the new Borg Queen."

Janeway stop speaking for a few seconds, gathered her thoughts and went on. "We had a confrontation. Naomi stated that the Federation was not what she was taught. While I of course refuted her claim, I must say the Federation is not what it was when I left. When did we start treating people like lab rats and testing tools? When did we start locking children in solitary confinement without even a trial?"

Admiral Janeway slammed her hand hard on to the conference table and yelled, "When in hell did we start killing people without knowing the facts of the situation! When did we start killing in fear and ignorance!"

Admiral Janeway continued in a calmer voice that sounded almost sad. "This is not the Federation I remembered. I know war changes people, but have we fallen in this far? We need to do two things, move forward and regain our honor, and we need to prepare for war."

A balding man got up and said, "How dare you barge in here and accuse us of such thin..."

Captain Picard silenced the man with a glare. "Now we are fighting with ourselves. Admiral, I am afraid that you maybe more right then even you know. We are now paying the price for falling so far down the slippery slope; we don't need to be fighting each other or having accusations floating around. We need a solution and we need unity."

Admiral Paris now added his piece. "Thank you Captain, you are correct. Let's start by learning about Naomi Wildman. How did she grow up? What events may have changed her life greatly? How much of a threat is Naomi is compared to the Queen that was destroyed by a future version of yourself Admiral Janeway?"

Admiral Janeway stood up and cleared her throat. "I will answer the questions in order. Naomi was born stardate 49548. Naomi is a part Human and part Ktarian hybrid, and because of this she grew very quickly. Her mind developed just as quickly as her body. Naomi had inherited her mother's and from what I heard her father's intelligence. Naomi persuaded Seven to become her teacher. At first she was mainly learning about the Delta Quadrant to try and become my assistant. Seven was a hard taskmistress but Naomi always seemed to meet Seven's expectation. Naomi's lessons soon grew from topics pertaining to the Delta Quadrant to that of science. As Seven was her teacher she also learned Borg science, which I must say is very advanced and would be difficult to learn even for most science officers.

Admiral Janeway paused and went on. "I still remember the day I found out that Ensign Samantha Wildman had died. It was truly horrible what the Colmorders did to her. When the two Wildmans were captured they were subjected to a mental scanning device for the purpose of finding the best way to use a slave. The mental scan showed that Naomi knew a quite a bit about the Borg. They asked her to reveal her knowledge and she refused. They then brought Ensign Wildman in and tortured her in front of Naomi for three days strait. Naomi had not broken when Seven came to the rescue, but the worst had happened. Ensign Wildman had died of injuries sustained during her captivity."

Everyone could see a tear fall down Admiral Janeway's face. She continued. "I remember asking myself what kept her from breaking those three days. It's had taken me a few months to learn the answer from Neelix. He told me it was a combination of two reasons, one being her mother asking Naomi to not give in, no matter what, and the other her belief in the Federation and its values. Naomi's actions were greater then what we could expect from almost any Starfleet officer."

I could see the shock of everyone in the room. The Federation officers looked both sad and amazed. Admiral Janeway went on. "Yes, what Naomi did was truly amazing, and I was truly proud of her, and horrified that I had failed her so greatly. Naomi, as could be expected, was at first withdrawn and very angry. I knew she was angry with me for months. In her eyes I'd failed her, which of course I did. Soon after the death of her mother Naomi started researching in to Borg Nano Probes and implants in secret. It took Naomi about a year and a half to develop the Nano Probes which where already designed to create implants. Within four months her Nano Probes had created a Cortical Node, a Nano Shield Generator and a tubule."

Admiral Janeway walked back over to her spot and took another drink of water and went on. "Naomi had her implants for almost a year without anyone on _Voyager_ knowing. I didn't find out about Naomi's implants until the Doctor discovered them and informed me. I had never found out exactly why she did this to herself, but my guess was she wanted to be more like Seven. Naomi idolized Seven and always wanted to be like her. I still can remember the day when Seven woke me up the night that Naomi was caught with her implants."

A smile formed on Admiral Janeway's lips. "Seven had a worried look on her face when she told me that Naomi's designs where very efficient, too efficient. Seven was worried that if the Borg ever found out about Naomi's Nano Probes and implants they would stop at nothing to get a hold of them. I was surprised at Seven's words and spent the night studying Naomi's work. I was truly impressed. While I understood the concepts behind her designs, it was all well over my head. I had no idea where Naomi came up with half of it."

Admiral Janeway sat down in her chair and sighed. "As for how much of a threat Naomi is compared to the former Queen? The former Queen was very singled minded; she would not stop until she achieved her goals. Her tactics rarely changed. It was thanks to this we survived so many encounters with the Borg. Naomi has always been very imaginative, the reason was that there were no other children on board _Voyager_. She only had her imagination and the holo deck to occupy herself when the adults were busy. I can see now that her imagination helped her create her Nano Probes. One thing the Borg had not been capable of was developing their own technology, they could only assimilate it from others. This has changed now, and with the resources of the Borg who knows what Naomi will create. We've already have seen a change in the Borg. In the past the Borg would never have stolen a ship like they did, with trickery. This has all changed with Naomi becoming the Queen."

The balding man to the right of the Prime Minister now spoke up. "Are you saying it is hopeless? That the Borg will take over and win?"

Admiral Janeway answered quickly. "No, that is not what I said. What I am saying is this new Queen will make the Borg a larger threat then before. We have a lot of work ahead of us to prepare for the approaching storm. Naomi is still just one person, and if we work to together we can beat her."

The holographic characters and meeting chamber suddenly disappeared and Shaleena spoke up. "I ended the program there because all you would see is a lot of useless bickering, which I imagine would give you a pounding headache. Besides, it is time for both of us to regenerate."

"You are right," I replied. "Goodnight Shaleena, and I will see you tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do." I got up from my seat and walked into my bedroom. As I drew the covers around myself I reminded myself again that this was my home, the only one I would ever need.

* * *

A/N: I wish for all my readers to have Marry Christmas and this my present to you. I also wish to thank David and Sage of the Flux Mysteries for there nice reviews. Dave later in the story there be a very conflict that lead to the possible destruction of the collective. 


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

As soon as my regeneration cycle began I found myself back in the black void. I turned around and saw the image of the former queen that program 001 BetaV2 had created. "Hello, I did not expect to see you tonight."

"You did not? That is a bit surprising, considering you have made such progress today into truly accepting who you are now," the former queen said. "Today you finally realized that the collective is your family now. That the family you had in the past is simply that, the past. But now you see your diamond ship as your home amongst the collective, not the ship that you so skillfully took from the Federation. You will always have a place in your heart for _Voyager_, but now that is no longer your true home."

The recreation of the former queen seemed to almost beam at me with pride like a mother would to her daughter.

"My home is here with the collective, and with Shaleena," I said slowly. "Voyager just does not seem the same. It does not feel right. It is not my home any more." I felt sad at my last words.

"There is no reason to be sad about growing and moving on," the former queen said, wrapping her arms around me. "You are the Queen of the Borg. You are the beginning and the end for the collective. For you it has been more difficult to truly adapt to your new designation. Unlike the other queens, you do not feel and remember all of the other queens' memories like they are your own. Today you made a large step in truly becoming the Borg queen. You have just one more large step to take before your transformation is complete. This step will be the hardest one for you to make. It will take you time to make it, but I am sure you will. Now then, it is time for you to sleep now, to let your true family take care of you while you are at your weakest. Good night, Naomi of Borg."

As my mind went blank I felt truly content; the collective was my family, and they would always be there to take care of me, as I would do the same for them. For we were truly one, we could not exist with out the other. We were one.

…

The following morning I started going through _Voyager's_ database files. The first thing I had the collective process was the information on all of the technology that the future version of Admiral Janeway had given to the crew of _Voyager_. This information would help us grow and take us another step closer to perfection. Later the same morning I ran across the Doctor's research files on species 8472. Species 8472 was the only species to ever offer true resistance to the Borg. They were a threat to us, and we needed to find a way to assimilate them, or at the very least a way to destroy them. Unfortunately Captain Janeway had given species 8472 the Nano Probe weapon to study and counteract. This meant we would have to come up with a new weapon and hopefully figure out a way to assimilate them.

It seemed I had found a new project for Shaleena. I got up from my throne chair and walked to the lab, where I found Shaleena hunched over a computer terminal, her eyes fixed on the data flashing by. "Hey Shaleena, I have a new project for you," I said cheerfully.

Shaleena looked up from the terminal, her eyes lighting up as they linked with mine, causing us both to smile wider. "What is it Naomi?" She asked, racing up to me. It was at moments like this where she was most like the normal child I used to wish I could be.

"How much do you know about species 8472?" I asked.

"Not a lot, but I do know they are the only race to ever truly threaten the Borg, and that all of their ships are organic in nature. That is about all I know," Shaleena answered. "I have been meaning to learn more about them. As I just said, their ships are organic. I would love to learn how you would go about creating something like that." I could see that Shaleena had that far away look in her eyes again, and I knew that she was contemplating the possibilities of such advanced organic structures.

"Well here is your chance to become an expert on species 8472," I replied. "I need you to learn the ins and outs of species 8472; about there physiology, their bio-technology, to learn all of there weaknesses. Hopefully you will be able to create both a way to assimilate species 8472 or even a way to simply destroy them. I have already downloaded everything Voyager has on species 8472 to your computer network. Between those files and the ones the collective already possesses you will have the most extensive records of species 8472 that exist in the galaxy."

"While this is a project I would love to do, what about my research in creating new drones through cloning?" Shaleena asked. "I have just gotten to point where I am able to start my research. I have finally gotten my knowledge to the same level as the collective's."

"This is much more important Shaleena," I answered. "Until we have some way to counteract species 8472 we are vulnerable to their attacks. I am not sure how our new defenses will hold up against their weapons, or even if they will be able to slow them down. The last time they attacked the collective was before the pathogen nearly destroyed us. We do not have the numbers that we had in the past, so we need this research done quickly. While you are doing this research I am going to begin implementing the new technology from _Voyager_. I will also be focusing on creating a defense against the new interphase cloaking torpedo that I created."

As I turned and was walking away from Shaleena I mumbled, "Hum, that might be away to get past species 8472's bio armor." If I would have turned around I would have seen Shaleena shaking her head at me. The collective link was so very valuable at times like these.

…

Four months later I was sitting on one of the couches in my bedroom, looking out of my holographic view port as I observed the reconstruction of Unimatrix zero-one. Eighty-two days ago the collective had retaken the space where Unimatrix zero-one had once stood and started the construction of the massive complex.

When I had started to design the new Unimatrix zero one, I had decided to build it based off of the original Unimatrix. I then started making changes that I thought were needed. First I totally redesigned the Unimatrix power system to use the fusion collapse energy enhancement. There would be four Harmonic Resonance Containment Cores throughout the Unimatrix complex. Each core would be completely separate from the others. I decided to do this in case one or more of the cores destabilized so the reaction would not cause the others to fail. But all four of the cores would be connected to a single power grid.

The next major change I made was to implement the new tri-layer shield system, with one major difference. There would be a primary and secondary tri-layer shield grid. So in essence there would be six shield layers surrounding the Unicomplex. Three of the layers however would be generated from a separate shield system, and the other three from another system. This would allow for redundancy, for it the enemy was able to destroy one of the shield grids the other would still be there and continue to generate the tri-layer shields.

I would also be implementing the new weapons system that my diamond was using. We would also be using the technology we learned from _Voyager_. At this point in time all of the collective's ships where able to use ablative armor, but on the Unimatrix I had a greater source of power then what could be found on my diamond, or any other Borg ship. Therefore I came up with a new design for the ablative armor that was going to be used on the complex. With the new armor system, the ablative armor would be able to adapt and change as needed. It could re-replicate the armor on weakened portions of the armor skin. It could even be changed to a different type of armor altogether if needed.

These were the largest changes I made to the Unimatrix complex. Most of the other systems I had only made minor changes to improve efficiency. The main purpose of the Unimatrix was to be the central location where most of the collective was controlled. Once built, the collective would be even more efficient then they were now. The Unimatrix was also the central place to construct and repair ships. In fact over sixty percent of the complex was for this purpose. The last function of the Unimatrix was the storage of drones until they were needed to crew a newly built ship. When the Unimatrix complex was finished I could close down the other construction yards if I wanted too, which I did not plan on doing.

With an effort, I turned my mind away from the construction of the Unimatrix zero-one. It was time for my nightly meal with Shaleena. She had told me earlier that she was finally ready to give me an overview of her research. I was very excited to hear what she had done. Shaleena had been a bit tight-lipped about her research, saying she was making progress but that it was slow going.

I exited my bedroom into my audience chamber. The dinning table was already set up and Shaleena was waiting in her seat. I sat down at my normal spot and asked, "How are you doing today?"

"It has been going well, and as I said last night I am now ready to show you what I learned and what I am developing. Would you like to start my little presentation now?" Shaleena asked.

I nodded my head yes. "Please do, I have been eager to see what you been up to since you decided to lock me out of my own lab."

Shaleena smiled at me sheepishly, though I detected a trace of mischief in her thoughts. "Well yes, sorry about that. I was also working on a surprise for you; we will get to that later. Now then, I had to start out by using the notes from _Voyager's_ EMH of his research on species 8472. I must admit, they were very well done. In the Doctor's notes he had left the raw DNA in the file, along with a DNA file he had been working on decompiling. The DNA of species 8472 is much larger than of any other species I have ever seen. This does not make species 8472 stronger though, amoebas have much larger DNA strands then humans do. What it does do is make my life much more difficult. It took me a while to come up with a solution. Even using the collective's computers, it would have taken me years to map out species 8472's DNA. Then it hit me, the collective itself! The collective is more powerful then any computer system could hope to be. It took the collective only three days to completely map out the DNA."

"A mind is basically an organic computer system, but with trillions of minds connected together as one…" I said, trailing off for a moment. "I had never thought of it that way, but yes, it would be able to do things no other computer system could hope to do. In fact the collective does most of the work that a computer system would normally do. Our computers just help maintain the collective's connection to all of its drones."

Shaleena continued. "Once I had the DNA mapped out I could truly get down to business. There was so much data in species 8472 that I had the collective download only the relevant data to my mind. Only the collective could look at all of the data at once and could pick out what I needed to study. I find the collective truly amazing. What I soon learned is that their immune system is very powerful, more powerful then any other species known to the collective. The method that the EMH doctor came up with making Nano Probes emulate species 8472 electrochemical signature was truly brilliant. Unfortunately, I have to assume that species 8472 now has a way to counteract this form of attack and any other like it. I knew I would need to come up with a completely different approach if we are to assimilate or kill them."

Shaleena stopped speaking to eat a bit of her food. If I did not know better I would swear she was trying to drag this out, making me wait in suspense. I was tempted to learn what she was thinking through the collective, but I decided I would let Shaleena have her fun.

After a minute Shaleena started speaking again. "So, here I was trying to come up with an ingenious idea, trying to have a Naomi moment where something just comes to you." I raised an eye brow at Shaleena's comment. She continued. "I was going in circles in trying to think of a way to create a virus that would bypass species 8472's immune system. Then it hit me; why not create the virus from species 8472's own DNA. I knew what I needed to do; I would have to clone a small part of their DNA and shape it into what I needed. By using species 8472's DNA I would already be able to create a highly adaptable virus that changed its own DNA to match that of the host."

"So does that mean you have developed the virus and is it ready to be used?" I asked Shaleena, excitement in my voice.

"Yes, I have a prototype made, but first I have to test it," Shaleena said. "I have found a way I can create a clone of species 8472 using the DNA I have. It will be four days until my test subject will be ready to be removed from the maturation chamber. At that time we will perform the first test. At that time I will also tell you more about the virus. I would like to do a little bit more fine tuning. Oh, tomorrow morning I would like to meet you in your bedroom. I have a surprise for you that I been working on in my off time."

"Wow, it seems you have made a lot of progress," I said. "I am looking forward to seeing how this test turns out. We may have a new weapon that could even the odds. We could use our new interphase cloak torpedoes as a method of delivery of the virus."

"That should not be a problem, as from what I could tell their bio-ships have the same DNA structure as they do. Also by that method both the ship and the pilot would be infected, putting both out of commission."

"Very good, let's hope this test goes as plan. Now what is this surprise you have for me?" I asked.

"Well, you will just have to wait until tomorrow to see it," Shaleena winked. "Now then Naomi, have a good night." With her parting words she disappeared in a green transporter beam to her new quarters, which had been added to my ship for her a few months ago. I decided that she had the right idea and I got up from my seat and went to my own bed to regenerate.

* * *

A/N: I wish to thank my reviewers Dave, Tillallareone and Quantumsilver I wish thank you thee for you nice reviews.

Dave asked "are you going to do anything with the borg drones that were released during the voyager series? I don't remember the title but it involved 7 of 9 going into a dream world where people retained their personalities even tho they had been assimilated."

The episode is Unimatrix zero for you information and to answer your question I don't think so. I am too far into writing and have little ideas to work that in but you never know I will think about for there are some possibilities.

Quantumsilver asked about Janeway and her interaction with Naomi and I can safely say you see Janeway again in this story.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please keep sending those reviews I love to read then until next time.

Damien


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

(Note: My good friend Macellee came up with most of the ideas for this chapter. Thank you Macelle for your help. )

The following morning I woke up and got out of my bed and began my morning ritual of reviewing the knowledge that had been downloaded into me the night before and giving out new directives that I thought were needed. This morning I made a few changes in how pod 0451 would be constructed, which in comparison to some mornings was relatively minor.

When I opened my eyes again, returning my mind back to my body, I saw that Shaleena was beaming into my room. It seemed I would get to find out what Shaleena's surprise was now. "Good morning Shaleena, how are you today?" I greeted.

"I think today will be a great morning. I have a present for you which I hope you like." Shaleena turned her head to the right and a second later a strange-looking belt appeared on an end table near my center couch. I walked over to the small table and picked up the belt and studied it. I found that the belt had a small replicator on it which was similar to what the ablative armor system used to deploy itself. Finally I asked, "I know this belt has an ablative armor replicator on it. What does it do? Does it create a stronger armor then what I am wearing now?"

"While it does create a body suit armor that is stronger and more efficient then what you are wearing now, it can also do something much more impressive in my view. Here, take off your body suit and put the belt on."

I complied with Shaleena's request and removed the material I normally wore, then snapped the belt around my waist. I stood naked in front of Shaleena, feeling very embarrassed. "Now what?" I asked, trying to conceal my blushing.

Shaleena started laughing, then took a deep breath. "Think to the collective that you wish to be in relaxed mode."

I did as Shaleena asked. A brief warmth encompassed my body, and less than a second later I was wearing a shimmering, liquid silver colored dress that was long and flowing, nearly touching the ground. I entered Shaleena's mind to get a closer look at myself and I gasped at what I saw. I looked breathtaking in the simple yet elegant dress, which looked very sensual and provocative.

The dress had a single strap that went over my left shoulder which left both of my arms and my right shoulder bare. The silky material seemed to cascade all the way down to my feet. On my right side there was a long, wide slit which ran the entire length of my right leg and came to end at the top of my right thigh, and then re-continued from the lower waist up to the side of my right breast, which left the right edge and most of my right leg completely bare. I was also wearing a shining necklace which was incrusted with thousands of tiny silver diamonds that held the symbol of the Borg, which pulsed green. The necklace easily glittered like small stars in the light.

I then spun around to see what the back of the dress looked like. I saw that the strap from the left shoulder wrapped around in a narrow band to my right breast. From my upper left waist the material wrapped around my lower back at a downward angle to where the slit began on my right thigh, which left the majority of my back bare. I kept slowly spinning around, marveling how the material seemed to flow like liquid mercury, completely fluidic. The dress was the lightest and most comfortable thing I had ever worn. I was able to move with such ease.

"Wow, this dress is amazing! I have never worn anything like it before," I said finally. "I feel so elegant in this dress and it is very comfortable. It does not obstruct my movement at all. It is not very Borg-like, but I love it. Thank you so much Shaleena." I then threw my arms around Shaleena and hugged her tightly.

When I let go of Shaleena, my smile was duplicated on her face, which only served to make mine wider. "I am glad you like it so much, for you look gorgeous and very attractive in it," Shaleena said. "You now truly look like a queen and a goddess who will one day hold the galaxy in her small hands. Now then, anytime you are personally endangered, or if you tell the collective 'battle mode', the dress will immediately be dematerialized and reformed as your new bodysuit, which functions the same as your old armor but is made of better compounds. Also, both your dress and the armor can still absorb ambient heat and energy into your body."

"Did you make and design one of these nifty belts for yourself as well?" I asked Shaleena.

Shaleena winked and a blink of eye she was no longer wearing her normal bodysuit but instead was clad in a simple black halter dress with gold trim that had a very low neck line. The dress came down to her mid thigh, showing off a lot of her legs. She was also wearing high heeled sandals which had two straps that wound around her lower legs and up to her knees. When she spun around, I could see that her back was completely bare.

I raised an eyebrow as Shaleena completed her display. The dress was even more provocative then mine, and that was a saying a lot. Finally I said, "You do look very stunning Shaleena, and very sexy in that dress. I think it suits you well."

"I am glad you like it; I have always loved dresses that reveal the bare back. My dress may be bit too revealing, but I'm going to keep this style for a while. Now then, if you will just give me permission to help redecorate the collective a bit…" Shaleena carried off, suddenly lost in thought.

"Oh no, absolutely not happening!" I replied, now seeing what Shaleena was planning. "We are still individuals, so such irrelevant things still help make us happy. But the collective on the other hand does not need these things. If I find out that you have been tampering with **any** of my drones, I will be most displeased." I allowed a small warning tone into my voice. "Now then, while I thank you for this new device, if there's nothing else we should get back to work."

"You are no fun some times Naomi," Shaleena pouted. "But yes, I had an idea last night before I began regenerating. We have been working very hard for over three months. We need to have a little bit of fun."

"What do you have in mind for our fun?" I asked curiously. I always enjoyed Shaleena's surprises, so I did not peek into her thoughts through the collective.

"That we personally go assimilate species 382, who are also known as the Devore Imperium. Their territory is located in Spatial Grid 315.

"I know of that race from my time on Voyager, "I said, a frown rapidly dominating my former smile. "They were a very cruel people who hated telepaths. We had taken aboard a few refugees, two of them children my age. If they or their parents were caught, they would be taken to a detentions center where they would spend the rest of their short lives working for the Imperium."

"I know, that is why I picked them," Shaleena replied. "These people need to be knocked down a few pegs, and I have an idea on how we can do that." Shaleena started relating to me her ideas. They were not necessarily efficient, but it would be fun to knock species 382 down a few pegs like Shaleena said, and I decided it would be nice to finally have some fun.

…

An hour and a half later we had just arrived in Spatial Grid 315. My diamond ship had its shields and cloak off-line, and we were masking our power signature to make the diamond appear weaker than it really is. We had been traveling in Devore space for only fifteen minutes when our sensors detected a battle group of seven Devore ships. I turned my head to Shaleena. "It is time," I said, smiling.

With a thought I made the room brighter and more cheery, and then sat down in my throne chair. As I sat down my right leg slipped through the long slit of my dress, showing off my lengthy limb, which was very well toned and slightly tan from when Shaleena had altered my skin color. I thought that I looked very elegant and a bit provocative, which would be perfect for me to portray a young and innocent girl who held some power. Shaleena stood to the right of my chair. Within one minute the battle group had surrounded my diamond. I felt through my link to the collective that we were being hailed. With a thought I opened a channel and a holographic image appeared of a blond haired man who had a V-shaped crease starting at the bridge of his nose and ending around where eyebrows would normally be.

"I am Chief Inspector Saxwa of the Devore Imperium order," the man said in a loud and confident tone. "You have violated our space and as such you are required to submit to inspections for telepaths. Do you have any telepaths aboard your ship?"

"Yes inspector, we have over two hundred telepaths aboard this ship. Is there a problem with that?" I asked as innocently as I could.

I saw that Chief Inspector Saxwa's eyes seem to be closely looking me and Shaleena over. Then his eyes popped open in shock as he processed what I had just said. "Over two hundred telepaths! You are in some major trouble young lady." He paused for a few seconds to think, then he continued. "Are you some kind of princess or someone of high status?" He asked.

"I am not a princess, but I am a queen," I replied.

Chief Inspector Saxwa smiled. "I have never bedded royalty before," he said quietly, to him self I presumed. "I do have a proposal for you that will prevent you and your entire ship from being impounded," he continued, his voice going back to normal. "First, we will have to take all of your telepaths, and next you will stay aboard my ship while it is escorting your vessel through our space. Finally, the girl standing next to you will remain with me as my personal slave who will take care of my needs after you have left. What say you, will you take my generous offer?" Chief Inspector Saxwa had the most disgusting smile on his face. It reminded me painfully of Gresord's.

I was fuming at this disgusting man; we had come here to have some fun. My original plan had been to assimilate a select number of species 382 to help knock them down a peg or two, but now I wanted this man to answer for his insult to me and Shaleena.

With a thought to the collective I had my diamond's shields raised. As soon as my shields were up I opened up fire on all of the ships in the battle group, except for the ship that the Chief Inspector Saxwa was aboard. My new torpedoes ripped right through the Devore shields with ease, quickly assimilating the ships. Then my diamond started using its cutting lasers to disable the shields of the Chief Inspector's flagship. Once the shields were down I sent drones over to the ship to start assimilating everyone abort, except Chief Inspector Saxwa. He was to be brought aboard my ship to face the consequences of his actions.

* * *

A/N:

I wish to thank Sage of the Flux Mysteries and Blake Wilson for there reviews of chapter 14. It will be while before I post chapter 16 portably five days maybe seven to give every one a chance to vote on Chapter 16 maybe longer if I have to rewrite it. I should add depending on you vote will also affect the ending and how dark it will be.

Thank you for reading.


	16. Chapter 16

Note: A small part was added since the one I posted on my yahho group

Chapter 16:

I felt through the collective that the Chief Inspector had been found. I also felt the pure fury and passion that Shaleena was feeling. She wanted to punish the Chief Inspector herself. She was upset that the he wanted to use her as a sex slave. But what seemed to truly anger her was that the Chief Inspector wanted to have his way with me. To her, anyone who had harmed or wanted to hurt me was completely unforgivable. I was astonished at the devotion she felt for me. It seemed she would do anything for me. I was truly awed and honored for the esteemed she held me in.

I sent a thought to Shaleena and said, "He is yours to punish as you see fit. One other thing, thank you. I am truly honored by your feelings for me. It means a lot." Shaleena seemed to stand straighter at my last words. Then I saw a truly sinister smile appear on her face. This was the first time I ever really seen this side of Shaleena. I felt like I should feel sorry for the poor man who was about to suffer under Shaleena's hand, but what I felt instead was contentment.

With another thought to the collective Chief Inspector Saxwa was beamed aboard about a meter and a half from my feet. Shaleena quickly raised her right hand and shot a modified Nano pellet at the Chief Inspector. In a voice I never heard Shaleena speak in, she hissed and at the same time slowly walked in a circle around the Chief Inspector. "Welcome aboard the flagship of the Borg Queen. You have been given an honor that you do not deserve. You do not deserve to even be in her presence, much less then having your wild ways with her. You discussed me. What are you doing still standing before the queen of the Borg? Kneel!"

Chief Inspector Saxwa did not move. I could already feel some of his thoughts from his newly formed cortical node. He was scared of Shaleena, even though he was much bigger than her. Shaleena again yelled "Kneel!" and at the same time I heard her voice through the collective commanding the Nano Probes in the Chief Inspector's body to force him to kneel.

Less then a second later the Chief Inspector was kneeling before me. It was an unusual feeling to have someone kneeling at your feet. I must say that I liked the feeling. Shaleena then commanded the collective to beam the Chief Inspector's armored shirt off of him. A moment later the Chief Inspector's chest was bare. I found his body repulsive. A drone walked up to Shaleena carrying a black and green rod that was about thirty centimeters long. From my connection to the collective I knew that it was a device Shaleena had designed in her mind a while back and had just been replicated, but I was focusing too much on the goings on in front of me to learn more.

Shaleena took the rod devise from the drones hand and looked at it. "I created this device as something of a fantasy when I was a slave. The man who owned me was a lot like you, and I always wanted to use it on him. You see I have a great deal of knowledge of biology, which I used to create this. I should thank the collective, who finished and perfected my design for me and then created it. I will now test it out at the lowest setting.

Shaleena pressed a button that had the Borg symbol on it and five green strands of energy formed, each one seventy five centimeters long. The devise also had a slight hum to it. I now knew what it was; a whip made of energy. Sensing my realization, Shaleena turned towards the Chief Inspector. "As you can see, this is an energy whip. When the whip is in motion, the beams transform into low level cutting beams which will easily cut into your back. As soon as the whip impacts your back and is stopped, it will discharge a special shock that plays havoc on your nervous system, which creates a feeling of unspeakable pain. Point three seconds later the energy transforms into healing beams which heal the cuts made by the whip."

Naomi felt a sudden pain in her chest as Shaleena described her invention. As she looked at it Naomi's mind flashed back to her mother, screaming in agony as Grosard whipped her to death. "Shaleena wait," Naomi choked out. "We can't do this."

"What? Why not?" Shaleena asked, confused at Naomi's sudden reluctance.

"Because…this is how my mother died," Naomi replied, a pair of tears slowly falling down her cheeks. "I can still hear her screams as Grosard's whip stole the last of her life away. I can still see her eyes, looking to at me as I tried to bring her back. I can…" Naomi broke off, unable to continue.

"Oh Naomi," Shaleena said, crossing over to Naomi and wrapping her arms around her. "I can sense how you feel, but this is very different that what happened to your mother."

"How?" Naomi said. "How is this different?"

"Your mother was a kind woman who did nothing to deserve what happened to her. I can feel the love you had for her. But think about this Naomi; Saxwa had hurt so many before we found him. I can see some of his memories now. The things he wanted to do to you he's done to other girls before. He deserves this." Seeing Naomi was still uncertain, she added, "And I need it. I suffered too much at the hands of a man like him. Let me show you."

Naomi felt Shaleena pull her mind inside her memories. She saw Shaleena, naked and bound with chains which kept her still in the center of a large bare chamber. Grosard stood behind her, a long whip with a glowing blue tip in hand. "You think I'm playing around?! I told you I wanted that work done TODAY!" He bellowed, punctuating his last word with a vicious blow across Shaleena's back. "I. Don't. Like. To. Be. Kept. Waiting," he said slowly, a new line of blood appearing with each whip crack after he spoke.

"I'm sorry! I swear I did my best!" The bound Shaleena cried, tears streaming freely down her face.

"Not good enough! Maybe you just need some more incentive," Grosard smiled as he put away the whip and advanced on Shaleena, a predatory smile splitting his face. Just as he reached Shaleena Naomi found herself back in her own body.

"I'll never forget the things he did to me," Shaleena said softly. "But the Chief Inspector has done most of those things to innocent girls he's taken. So you see, he deserves this, your mother didn't."

Naomi was still recovering from what Shaleena had shown her. It left her wanting to go back in time and assimilate Grosard all over again, but much more slowly. She still saw her mother, but beside her a small girl Naomi didn't know was being raped by the Chief Inspector. With an effort of will Naomi tore her mind away. "I had no idea you…You're right, my mother's death is different. The things you've done," she said to Saxwa, "there can be no forgiveness. Shaleena, do what you need to."

Shaleena slowly walked behind the Chief Inspector, methodically examining the structure of his body. I could sense she shared my dislike of the man's features. Shaleena then took a step back, raised the whip above her head and in one smooth and quick movement, she stepped forward, bringing the whip down hard onto the Chief Inspector's bare back.

The Chief Inspector let out a horrible scream. Through the link to the collective I could tell that the pain was unbearable. Shaleena waited a few seconds, then brought the whip down on his back again. Shaleena whipped the Chief Inspector for a minute straight. He would have passed out from the pain if it were not for his newly formed cortical node.

Shaleena finally stop whipping the pathetic man. She just stood back, watching him in disgust. Finally Saxwa found the strength to speak. "Please your highness, order her to stop. I apologies for the crude remarks I made to you. I am sorry, please have mercy."

I looked at the man and I thought I would feel pity for him. But my heart had gone cold for men like him. I felt a truly cruel smile cross my lips and I turned back to my counterpart. "Shaleena, increase the level of suffering and continue his punishment." A look of despair appeared on the Chief Inspector's face. Shaleena seemed more then happy to comply with my request. She pressed a control on the whip two times, each time increasing the volume of the humming. She got back in to position and with out preamble began whipping the Chief Inspector again.

This time Shaleena whipped the Chief Inspector for three minutes straight without pause until I put my hand up in the air and Shaleena stopped. She was breathing hard and I could see sweat glistening on her forehead and neck. I gave the pathetic man a minute to collect himself before I spoke. "We are now en route to a planet that is completely made of ice. With your Borg implants you will be able to survive on the planet for about three or four years. To make your time a bit more miserable, I decided that you will be reliving this punishment at least once a day."

The Chief Inspector's face went white with fear, and he crawled up to me, grabbed my bare leg and kissed it. I felt a small amount of bile rise in my throat as his lips made contact. The Chief Inspector looked up at me, panic and terror in his eyes. "Please your highness, don't do this to me! I don't deserve this!"

I kicked the Chief Inspector hard with my right leg and he quickly backed away. I got up out my seat and said, "Shaleena, he still does not understand. Increase the level of suffering again and continue the punishment." The smile on Shaleena's face was truly evil and I took a half step back. The Chief Inspector whimpered in despair. I walked behind Shaleena and observed her from behind.

Shaleena got back into position and then she step back with her right leg. I could see the muscles in her legs go taut. Shaleena then raised her shapely right arm high in the air and like a spring stepped forward with her right leg, at the same time bringing the whip down hard against the Chief Inspector's bare back again. I watched, entranced, as Shaleena whipped the Chief Inspector. I could now see a sheen of sweat on Shaleena's fully exposed back, legs and arms, which made her skin glisten from the light in the room. I thought it made Shaleena looked truly gorgeous. Watching Shaleena, I found it to be very sensual.

As I looked on, slowly circling the pair, Shaleena was relentless with the whip. The first stroke was as hard as the last, she never once wavered. She used almost every muscle in her small frame in every stroke, her movements showing pure passion. I found the dark dance to be truly beautiful and seductive. I was taking pleasure at watching Shaleena whip the poor pathetic man. I had already been seeing the things the Chief Inspector had done through my collective link. The things he had done to young telepathic girls sickened me. This man was not innocent by a long shot, and therefore I did not feel any guilt in reveling in his suffering.

I sat back down in my throne chair and continued to watch Shaleena in action. She continually whipped the Chief Inspector until we dropped out of transwarp. Once we reentered normal space I sent a thought to the collective to modify the Chief Inspector's implants to enable him to survive in the cold for a long time. He would also feel compelled not to harm himself or his portable alcove and to regenerate each day. This would insure that he would live out his sentence.

With little preamble the Chief Inspector was beamed down to a small cave on the frozen planet, which had just enough atmosphere for him to survive. A few seconds later a portable alcove was also beamed down into the cave. The Chief Inspector would live out the rest of his short life on this desolate planet.

I turned to Shaleena, who had had her implants absorb the sweat that covered her body and convert it into energy. "Now that we have had our fun, we need to get back to work," I said. "While torturing the Chief Inspector may have been fun it was a very inefficient use of our time. We hardly assimilated anyone, so our playtime is most definitely over."

Shaleena almost seemed to pout, but after a second she nodded. "Very well then, I do have some work to complete before my test subject is ready to come out of the maturation chamber." Shaleena nodded to me. The now deactivated whip was beamed out her hand to her quarters, and then she walked off to my lab to get return to her work.

I frowned to myself. I knew that when I became the Borg queen that I had lost most of my morals. I no longer felt any pity or compassion for those we assimilated. Such feelings where irrelevant, but I also seemed to have become a truly cruel person. It seemed I had changed even more then I thought I had. In the end I finally came to the conclusion I was who I was. I had become what I needed to be in order to function as the Borg Queen. I also realized that whatever Gresord had done to Shaleena had changed her into a much darker person then she once was. I sensed that over time many would suffer because of this change. She would bring our dark form of justice to those we thought deserving of it. Both Shaleena and I lived in the dark, and that was simply who we were.

* * *

A/N: Wow I have gotten seven the last chapter. I reviewed the votes which where heavily in favor of posting this chapter so here it is for those who did not read or came back to read the new part I added. Again I thank everyone that voted and reviewed. I will post chapter seventeen soon hopefully by Tuesday.

Thanks again and until next time

Damien


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Today was the day we would be testing the virus that Shaleena had created. Within an hour the species 8472 clone would be ready and released from the maturation chamber. I was sitting in my throne chair in the audience chamber, checking over the progress of the construction of Unimatrix Zero One. The Unimatrix was almost complete, it only needed another four, maybe five days of construction. In fact my diamond was now able to enter the center of the Unimatrix. This gave me easy access to the complex.

Tomorrow Shaleena would move her research to her new lab and work from there. Shaleena would also have new chambers on the Unimatrix which where much larger then the ones she had aboard my ship. She would of course be able to use her old quarters on my ship any time we were away from the Unimatrix. I had also set up a new chambers on the Unimatrix which was a copy of the ones I had here. But I would continue to use the ones abort my ship; my chambers on the Unimatrix would be there for backup incase my ship was ever destroyed.

With a gentle nudge the collective reminded me that it was time to go to the lab to see Shaleena's work. I got up from my seat and strode over to the lab. The first thing I saw when I entered the room was a large circler device in the center. I knew that this was the over sized maturation chamber. Shaleena was standing at a computer terminal which was connected to the chamber, methodically typing commands into the control panel.

Shaleena looked up at me and gave me a smile, which I returned. "It will be a few minutes until our clone is ready. While we are waiting, I will tell you a little bit about my virus. As I told you earlier, I created it out of the DNA of species 8472, since that would allow me to make the virus able to change itself to match the host body's DNA. Now, what I have not told you is how the virus kills the host. I found out from the Doctor's notes that species 8472 has a way to commit suicide by releasing a chemical from their brain, instantly killing them. If my virus works it will cause the release of this chemical. I am not positive, but I think their bio-ships use a very similar chemical which will cause the bio-ship to die as well. From what I can tell from my research, the virus should affect their bio-ships in the same exact manner."

The collective had notified Shaleena that the maturation process was complete. I too heard this since I was thinking about the maturation of the 8472 clone. As the queen, I heard everything the collective said or thought, but my mind tuned out all information I do not need to know.

"It is time," Shaleena said. "I have already created a small implant that will release the virus on what I guess is the alien's right arm. The process should take about fifteen seconds from the point the virus enters the clone's system to his death. Well then, let's see what happens." Shaleena pressed a few keys and I found out from the collective the moment the virus was released in to the clones system.

Both Shaleena and I waited and stared at the computer panel, watching the clone's life signs which was shown on a side screen. Within ten seconds the clone was twitching, and two seconds later the clone was dead. The virus had worked perfectly, killing the clone in just under thirteen seconds.

"Shaleena, while I can see that this virus is very efficient, I was wondering if it was possible to develop it in a way that it would make it possible to assimilate species 8472?" I asked while flashing her an appreciative smile.

"I have already been working on that problem, and I think I am very close to a solution," Shaleena said. "I have been modifying the virus to temporarily suppress the immune system of the infected host. My main problem is that this all hinges on the virus being able to remain undetected by the host's immune system. This test tells me I am on the right path, but for me to truly know if this will work I will have to test this on the real thing. Then I will truly know if it will work."

I thought about Shaleena's answer for a minute before replying. "I have an idea. We could create a federation probe. When it gets close to hopefully a good number of species 8472 bio-ships it will set off a high yield bomb that should cause enough damage for the virus to affect all the bio-ships in the area. The virus will be spread in the same way as my atmospheric torpedoes spread our Nano Probes. If things go wrong, hopefully the Federation will get the blame and not us."

"I like that idea," Shaleena said. "No reason to start a war before we are ready to win it. I will prepare the needed amount of the virus for our next test. When do you wish to do this test Naomi?"

"When can you have the needed amount of the virus ready?" I asked in reply.

"Maybe an hour, no more then that," Shaleena said. "It is fairly easy to replicate the virus, but an outside source of several vital chemicals is required for it to propagate. When I designed it I made sure the virus could not spread on its own, therefore giving us complete control of it and something of a safety measure. Many people have been destroyed by the viruses they created. It is easy to lose control of a virus that is capable of spreading itself."

With a thought my ship was ejected out of the mostly completed Unimatrix into space. As soon as we were free of the Unimatrix we entered transwarp, heading in the direction of the alpha quadrant. "Within an hour we will be well out of Borg space. There we can open a rift in to fluidic space and send the probe through. We will maintain the rift while cloaked so we can watch and see what happens."

"Very well," Shaleena said. "I will start recreating the needed amount of the virus and I will let you deal with making a Federation probe that will suit our needs."

…

A little over an hour later we had just come out of transwarp and I was preparing my diamond to open up a rift into fluidic space. I had already replicated a probe which was rigged to go off when a bio-ship came within a set distance from it. I had only used Federation technology and materials in the probe's construction. Now it was time to launch the probe into the newly opened rift. With a thought the probe was away, and seconds later it had passed through the rift. I also gave the collective a mental order for us to cloak. Now we would just have to sit back and wait for the results of our latest test.

Shaleena and I had decided while we waited we would have our nightly meal together. Fifteen minutes after we had opened the rift our probe's sensors detected four bio-ships closing on its position. I had the room show us what the probe saw and less then a minute later we could see the four bio-ships. They were beautiful in a way, cutting through the matter of fluidic space like sharks through an ocean. As soon as the vessels passed the probe's detonation threshold it exploded. We lost the visual and I had the room show us the sensor readings we were getting from the rift.

Our readings showed that all four of the bio-ships had been hit by the blast. Shaleena and I waited with baited breath as the seconds ticked by. After five seconds we were getting readings of four life signs from the rift. After ten seconds the life signs were still strong. At fourteen point six seconds three of the four bio-ships were terminated. Two point five seconds later the last bio-ship ceased to emit life signs.

Both Shaleena and I released a breath that we did not know we were holding, and I said, "Nice job Shaleena, it seems your virus worked perfectly. I want you to rework this virus as you said to suppress species 8472's immune system and find out what modifications we need to make to our Nano Probes to assimilate them." I gave a mental command to the collective to close the rift, and seconds later we were back in transwarp, heading home to Unimatrix Zero One.

Shaleena closed her eyes for several seconds before turning to me. "Yes, I know I can do that now for sure with the data the probe and the ship's sensors gathered. I am not sure how long it will take for me to completely rework the virus, but we do have one thing for sure, and that is a weapon that is effective against species 8472. I am very relieved that my creation worked so well."

"Yes, I am very happy with your work," I said, patting Shaleena on the back. "We are no longer defenseless against species 8472. I have already given the collective a new directive in defending our selves from them. Things seem to really be coming together for us with the completion of the Unimatrix near and this new virus. When do you think you will have the needed modifications completed?" I asked.

"I have already begun to recreate the virus, so I think it should be ready in a few days. I have also already noted down a few modifications needed for our Nano Probes to create working implants for species 8472. So I would say that in five or six days I should be done if there are no unforeseen problems."

I smiled and said, "Very well, I will start gathering the strike force which will be testing the second version of your virus. Now that we know that the first version works, the strike force can use version one to escape if the need arises."

* * *

A/N: I would like to thank Blake Wilson, tillallareone and verystrangest for there very nice reviews and of course my beta Entilza for his hard work in making this fic even better. I am getting close to start writing the ending for this fic, but do not worry there are still nine more chapter I have already written that I have not posted and what ever I still have not written. So hope I you enjoy and keep sending me your thoughts in the way of reviews. 


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

I was sitting alone in my audience chamber alone, contemplating the events of tomorrow. It had been eight days since the meeting with Shaleena which had taken place right after the second successful test of her virus. The Unimatrix had been completed four days ago and was now running at peak efficiency. Yesterday Shaleena had told me that she was finished with her tasks. She had modified the virus to make the assimilation of species 8472 possible. She had also redesigned the program that created the cortical node to be able to function with species 8472's brain. The cortical node would insure that the newly assimilated species 8472 drones would not have any individual thoughts.

Today, with the help of Shaleena, we had started redesigning a torpedo to be able to infect the target with the virus and Nano Probes in the most efficient way possible, so that when the collective was attacking species 8472 they would replicate the specially designed torpedoes for species 8472 in the ships' torpedo launcher. It was one of our greatest advantages to be able to have self-replicating torpedo launchers; we could create at any time any type of torpedo we needed for any situation.

At the moment I was setting up the strike force that would go into fluidic space. The strike force would move through the rift they had created and wait nearby to attract species 8472 bio-ships to their location. If the initial assault was successful then the strike force would remain at their position for the next attack group of species 8472 ships, which presumably would be much larger. No matter the outcome of the second battle, unless it was a total loss, the remaining Borg ships and the newly assimilated species 8472 bio-ships would exit the rift and return to the Unimatrix.

I had decided that the strike force would consist of Tactical cubes 0158, 0397, 0783, 1468 and 1470. The force would also consist of cubes 04589, 06984, 07579, 13485, 13486, 13487, 13488, 25680, 27860 and 27865. The rift would be opened and maintained by science sphere 072. The science sphere was something I had created which was based heavily off of my Diamond ship. I would not be going on this attack, instead I would be directing the attack from Unimatrix zero one. I had ordered all of the designated ships to gather at the point where the rift would be opened.

Now that I had everything set for the following morning, it was time for me to go regenerate. It was late and Shaleena had already gone to regenerate an hour ago, so I got up out of my chair and went to my bed. With a thought my dress changed into my body suit and I got under my silky sheets and closed my eyes. I heard the building hum of the hidden power transfer module and then my mind went blank.

…

The following morning when my regeneration cycle ended I got out of bed and with a thought I was wearing my silver dress. I went out to my audience chamber and sat down in my chair. I started my daily routine of making changes that I felt were needed. Today there where no changes, as I had already placed the collective in a defensive posture just incase anything went wrong with today's attack and we needed to defend ourselves.

The double doors to my audience chamber opened up and Shaleena walked in. "Good morning Naomi, I hope you had regenerated well last night," she said. Shaleena had the room create a chair to the right side of mine and sat down.

"Yes, I completed my regeneration cycle with no problems," I replied. "Don't worry Shaleena, I am ready for today's attack. Hopefully, with the assimilation of a few of species 8472's bio-ships, you will have a lot of new information to study and learn that you can use it to bring us a few steps closer to perfection biologically." I turned my head to the right for a second and the room changed itself to look like a real spatial overview of where the strike force was congregating.

With a thought science sphere 072 directed an energy beam a thousand meters away from itself and opened a quantum singularity which led to fluidic space. After ten seconds the rift had stabilized into a roughly oval golden portal, and the other fifteen Borg cubes flew in to the rift. With another thought the room changed to show fluidic space. It was almost like I was underwater, with the blue-green liquid surrounding my ships. I had the cubes form up into attack pattern 03 omega, one of our best defensive and yet offensive patterns. Now we would wait; all of the cubes had their shields raised to maximum and remodulated in a way to best be able to defend against species 8472 weapons fire. I hoped the tri-layer shields would help. All fifteen of the cubes had their torpedo bays already loaded with viral torpedoes.

I had to admit that I felt a knot in my stomach. I was very nervous, for if this did not work out right things could truly go badly for us. Each minute seemed to pass very slowly. I hated waiting, to many thoughts were going through my mind. Finally, after eight minutes Tactical cube 0397's sensors picked up nine bio-ships on an intercept course. Within a second all fifteen of the cubes had the same reading.

Thirty-six seconds later the seven bio-ships where in visual range, and Shaleena and I could see the group. The bio-ships where setup in an attack ring with a single ship in the center. I immediately knew what this formation did. The formation was so powerful it was capable of shattering an entire planet in one strike. Eight of the bio ships would give energy to the center ship and once the energy build up enough it would release it into a powerful beam. I sent the attack group a new directive, that any ship that was in the path of the beam was to initiate interphasic cloaking. The beam should pass harmlessly through the ship in danger.

Twenty-two seconds later the bio-ship had already initiated the energy transfer. The bio-ships entered range and the central ship released a powerful beam at tactical cube 1468, which immediately engaged its interphasic cloak. I held my breath as the beam reached cube 1468 and then passed straight through it. I sighed, it had worked. No damage had been taken by cube 1468. I gave the mental command to the collective to start attacking.

Within four point six seconds five hundred and fifty modified interphasic cloaking torpedoes were released, which quickly and with total ease ripped through the nine ships. It was simply too much for the ships to take. They were destroyed before the virus and Nano Probes had a chance to even try and assimilate the bio-ships. I cursed to myself; with memories I had of how easily we had been beaten before I had panicked and gone overboard with the torpedoes. At least we had learned one thing; we were now the stronger side.

Shaleena was laughing and patted me on the shoulder. "Well that did not go as planned, but it seems you have already developed a weapon that is able to destroy species 8472. Perhaps this time we will let my virus have a chance?" She asked with an amused smile.

A frown appeared on my face. "I admit I did overdo things a bit much, but that's no reason to laugh at me."

Shaleena snickered. "Oh I was not laughing at you. I understand that not long ago species 8472 almost wiped the collective out. I find it funny that we did not realize that with the upgrades you made to the collective we were now more powerful then them."

I was about to reply to Shaleena when I received a message through my link to the collective that a much larger attack group of ships were on an intercept course to my strike group. I gave a new directive to the collective, to first defend the ships using the interphasic cloaking device and to only use a few torpedoes on each attacking ship. I would watch what was happening and make adjustments accordingly.

Twenty-seven seconds later the attacking bio-ships where in range. My cubes started releasing torpedoes at the ships in front. This appeared to damage the ships and stop them from continuing their attack. As the bio-ships fired on our cubes they would cloak just long enough for the shot to pass through them, then decloak and return fire.

Within minutes of the battle I started hearing new voices join the collective, at first one and two, then a few more. The new voices where very distinct. The minds of species 8472 were different from most other species. In some ways their minds were far more complex then that most other species, but in other ways much less complex and more instinctual then other post-warp species.

I looked outward again and saw that the remaining bio-ships had changed tactics. They were firing in such a way as to trick cube 07579 into being visible when two close range shots hit the cube. The first shot passed through the first two shield grids and destroyed the third. The second shot hit the ablative armor, causing minor damage. The problem was that the damage caused to the effective area had become unstable in such a way that cube 07579 could no longer cloak properly. The damaged area was still in the normal space time continuum. The other bio-ships took advantage of this and pounded the still visible portion of the ship. Each shot cause more and more of the ship to become visible. Within forty five seconds cube 07579 was destroyed.

The battle did not last much longer. After cube 07579 was destroyed the invisible torpedoes made short work of what remained of species 8472's attack fleet. Soon the attacking force of over fifty ships had been assimilated. The newly assimilated bio-ships were healing themselves with the help of their new Nano Probes. Once the fight was over I directed the strike force to travel back through the rift. Any bio-ship that was to badly damage was drag through with a tractor beam, though slowly due to the fact that only the Borg portions of the bio-ships could be affected by the beams.

Once all of our ships were through the rift science sphere 072 closed it and opened up a transwarp conduit One by one the ships flew into the conduit, some by themselves, others being dragged in by a tractor beam. Once all of the ships except the science sphere were through the aperture, the sphere followed and at the same time maintained the transwarp conduit.

I looked over at Shaleena, who had her eyes closed as she absorbed the new knowledge we had assimilated from species 8472. I could feel that she was amazed at all the new knowledge we had gained. She was almost overwhelmed by it all. A smile had spread cross my lips; today had been a very good day. We had finally found a way to assimilate species 8472, and hopefully the cost of finally be able to assimilate them would pay for itself.

I looked away from Shaleena and instructed the collective to start transferring all knowledge on species 8472's energy weapon into me. I wanted to learn how to recreate it, and more importantly how to defend my ships from it. I knew I had to be even better prepared, for the next time we engaged species 8472, I wanted it to be the last.

* * *

A/N: I was going through my files and found the raw file that has this story in it. I have 9 more chapters written but not proof read and anther about a 1/3 written. I did nor proof this chapter, this is a raw post. If you guys wish I will see about proof reading all the chapters again and continue to post what I have left.

Damien


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